


Never Ending Scars

by roseimano



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Bullying, Cutting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Has Issues, F/M, Hints of Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Rape, Side HunHan, let's not spoil the whole story, some violence, what is life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-21 07:31:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11352759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseimano/pseuds/roseimano
Summary: You just gotta fake it till you make it. That includes smiles, personalities, and words. No matter how much you cover up, there's no denying those scars.College is rough.DISCONTINUED :(





	1. Newfound Trust

**Chanyeol PoV**

 

The hallways were clear as I walked in silence. My shoes made tapping noises each step I took on the cement flooring. It was a couple hours after school, no one was in sight on the school campus. Not even the teachers were anywhere to be seen. Everyone was probably in their dorms or out at some party. I had nothing really to do at the moment so that explains why I'm here roaming around at school. Looking up from my feet, I could see the light of the currently setting sun beam through the windows. It was a comforting color. Not too bright, but more relaxing. In a weird way, it made me feel a little empty. Walking slowly, I looked out the windows into the softly lit afternoon. I paused for a second, listening. I thought I heard something. Walking again, I approached where the noise had come from. A room with the door wide open had revealed where the sound was coming from. Another student. A small figured boy was collecting his books. He wore a baggy sweatshirt and skinny jeans. After a couple seconds of staring, I realized who it was. Baekhyun. He wasn't yet aware of my presence. I guess you could say we're friends. It's like the relationship where you know each other exist but choose not to acknowledge that. But it's not that simple. I know his secret or at least one of them. Who knows, he could have more. Looking at the back of his head, I watched him place a book on a desk before opening it. As he scanned through the pages, I remembered back to the time I found out his secret.

It happened after a performance.... a performance where he, in particular, messed up. While everyone was gathered backstage, celebrating, I watched Baekhyun get dragged away from his dad. No one noticed. A couple seconds after he left, I noticed something that belonged to him, a notebook. Grabbing it, I ran out the door and went in the direction that he and his dad had gone to. Racing down the hall, I desperately looked for them. As I slowed down my pace, I heard voices coming from around the corner, someone sounded angry. Peeking my head around the corner I saw Baekhyun and his father. Something wasn't right. I know what people don't usually look very happy when others yell at you or are disappointed in you, but this was different. Baekhyun looked apprehensive, maybe even a little terrified by something. Looking at his father, I could clearly tell that he was furious. His hands were balled into fists and he looked ready to blow. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, Baekhyuns dad had hit him across the face. I gasped but quickly covered my mouth with fear of being found. They didn't hear me. Watching the scene go down, I noticed that Baekhyun only averted his eyes to the ground. He didn't look surprised or shocked by what his dad had done. I sure did. After that, I didn't take my eyes off Baekhyun. I could hear his dad keep going on with his rant but I could only focus on the dark haired boy. Did this happen often? If so, how long has it been going on? So many thoughts went through my mind at that moment. Just as Baekhyun brought his eyes from the floor, I saw his dad ball a hand into a fist and began to plummet towards his stomach. I watched in horror as Baekhyun was thrown into the wall behind him due to the impact of the punch. As his back hit the wall he turned his head and his eyes met mine. They widened slightly but he couldn't seem to bring himself to look shocked. Either that, or he didn't want his dad to find out I was here. If so, it worked. As we stared into each other's eyes, I watched as tears start to stream down his cheeks.

"Don't come home tonight, or any other night for that matter. After all, you're an adult now, you don't need my help." His dad said before leaving. As soon as he was out of sight, I ran from the corner and went to Baekhyun who was now sitting on the floor. Placing his book on the floor, I crouched next to him. His face was buried in his hands. He was crying. I was snapped out of my memory as Baekhyun closed his book with a slam and placed it on top of the small stack of other books. Just as I was about to speak up, I noticed something a little strange, Baekhyun had trouble picking his books up. There were only three, plus a couple papers. It shouldn't be that hard to pick up. He cursed under his breath as he tried to shift it all to one arm.

"Hey Baekhyun," I said. He jumped at the should of my voice. Whipping his head around, he looked at me in shock. He relaxed a bit after seeing me.

"O-oh, Hey Chanyeol" He paused for a couple seconds. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same to you." I with a smirk. His expression didn't change. Instead, he went back to picking up his stuff. Neither of us tried to start a conversation. Instead, I just watched as he struggled to pick up his books. Something seems off... I thought as I watched him try to shift all of them to one arm. I spoke up again.

"Hey... Baekhyun" I started, "Could I see your arm?" As the words left my lips, he looked up at me, his eyes wide.

"Why?" He tried sounding unfazed by the question but I could hear his voice tremble. I watched as his eyes averted to his arm, which he had unconsciously held protectively to his chest.

"I... Just want to check something." I said, still watching his body language. Baekhyun slowly shook his head. His eyes showed fear. Taking a step back, he attempted to run away, but I was quicker. Taking his wrists, I slammed him against a nearby wall, pinning them on either side of his head. That came out a little harsher than it was meant to be... Baekhyun began to squirm against my grip but failed to escape.

"Don't fight me," I said, my voice coming out deep and husky. My grip tightened a little and I heard him whimper. When he stopped struggling, I let his wrists drop back down but held onto his left one. Holding it in front of us, I looked at Baekhyun. His eyes were wide, reminding me of a puppy. Looking back down, I began to slide up the sleeve of his sweatshirt. He clearly tensed up. His arm revealed cuts spreading from his wrist to his forearm. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Baekhyun avert his eyes to something on the other side of the classroom. Inspecting the cuts, I noticed that it had happened fairly recently, but even so, there was still dried blood. This needs to be cleaned.

"Come on," I said, taking his hand and leading him out of the room. The nurse's office was conveniently just across this room. The only problem was that there was no nurse. Good thing my mom forced me to take so many first aid courses in high school. I gestured Baekhyun to sit down as I gathered the materials I needed. Pulling up a stool across from him, I placed the medical supplies nearby.

(Forgive me, but I barely know anything about cleaning wounds and bandaging them...)

"I'm going to clean your wounds and bandage them up for you. Does that sound alright?" I said as I carefully held his arm in one of my hands. Looking into my eyes, he nodded before looking back down. First, I took a washcloth with warm water and placed it onto the cuts. He winced at the sudden contact. After a couple seconds, I began to dab away the dried blood and excess dirt. Glancing at him every so often, I noticed him bite his lip. After I finished that step, I took the bottle of saline solution. This was the worst step, but really important to clean the wounds. Taking yet another washcloth, I poured the solution on and placed the cloth onto Baekhyun's skin. He let out a yelp, causing me to pull the washcloth away from his wrist. Fuck this. It's gonna be too painful and take too long is this is how I'm doing it. I thought, placing the washcloth onto a table. This time, I took the whole bottle of saline solution and began to pour it onto the skin. Before I could, a voice tore through the silence.

"Wait!" Baekhyun shouted. Looking up at him surprised, we made eye contact. He was trembling.

"Can..." He began to say as he brought his eyes to the ground. "Can I hold your hand... I'm scared." A small smile pulled at the edges of my lips before replying with "Sure". With that, I let him take ahold of one of my hands. Grabbing the saline solution with my free hand, I felt his grip tighten. He squeezed his eyes closed as I began to pour the solution over his arm, not caring that I was wasting a lot of product. I could hear soft whimpers escape his lips. Taking the washcloth again, I began to wipe the dripping solution from his skin. Looking up at him again, I watched as tears formed in his closed eyes. His grip on my hand was still very tight. I decided to try speeding the rest of this up. Taking a healing cream, I gently spread it onto the wounds before grabbing the bandages. That was when I noticed tears now streaming down Baekhyun's face. Taking my free hand, I tilted up his chin so that his eyes could meet mine.

"Hey," I whispered in a comforting tone. "The worst part is over, now all I have to do is bandage it up and it'll be all over." My hand cupped his cheek before moving to wipe his tears away. For a moment, we just stared into each other's eyes. I noticed a light blush dust his cheeks. Smiling, I took the bandaged and began to wrap up his arm. After I finished, I decided to take a couple rolls of them so that I would be able to change his bandages. Now that I was done, I looked up at Baekhyun.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. Quietly, he responded with a "Yes"

"Then let's go to my dorm, that way we can have more privacy," I said standing. He followed behind me and we silently walked to my dorm. Opening the door, I let him in. My roommate seemed to be out of sight. Good. Sitting on my bed, I leaned against the wall and patted an empty spot across from me, "here, sit." I said. Baekhyun did just that and looked at me, awaiting one of us to say something. I ended up speaking up first.

"Please, talk to me," I said, almost pleading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... first chapter! I actually have no idea what inspired me to write this series. I just hope that I can continue it without any major issues. I hope you enjoyed... and possibly keep reading?


	2. In Your Grasp

 

**Xiumin PoV**

 

The room was silent, except for the light taps of my typing. I had been doing this for the past couple hours. By this time, I was about ready to pull out my hair. But I wouldn't do that; I love my hair. Instead, I whine. Why does it only have to be Wednesday? Sighing, for what feels like the hundredth time, I shut my laptop screen. This will never end. Slouching over my desk, I eyed random stuff in the dorm room, just to waste time. Before I could stop myself, my eyes had drooped and I fell asleep.

  
•{terrible time skip to waste time}•

  
Hours later, my eyes fluttered open to see only the darkness of the room. The only source of light was from the digital clock, emitting a red glow on my bedside table. It read 12:30. Stretching, I breathed in heavily. In an abrupt manner, a loud clatter came from the door. Startled by the sudden noise, I fell from my place in the wooden chair and found myself sprawled on the floor, almost knocking down my bedside table. Soon later, my roommate entered the room, immediately bursting out into laughter. Pouting, I shifted myself from the floor and onto my nearby bed.

"So Chen, what were you doing out so late?"

"Not too much, Mom." He said jokingly.

A small laugh escaped my lips before I looked over at the other boy. "Seriously, what kept you out so late? Curfew is at like, 12 or something."

He let out a light breath of air before talking, "Just hanging with a couple friends. I was originally gonna stay at their place, but it got boring." I nod in response and shifted from the floor and onto my bed. Chen threw his bag onto the floor. Rolling toward the wall, I got under my blankets. Soon enough, the lights went black and we were both tucked into our own beds.

"Goodnight, Xiu" I heard Chen whisper from across the room.

I responded a quiet goodnight before my eyelids fell and I went into a deep trance of sleep. My mind pulled me into a story, a reality, I never asked to see.  
I was naked. Standing in front of a crowd. Nothing on me but words written in black, all across my bare skin. People stood around me, people I know, my classmates, my friends. I looked back at myself and the words are written on me. "Freak, slut, loser, homo, annoying" Those were only a small portion of some of the words written. I am restrained by chains, making me unable to run, hide, do anything to protect myself from the burning stares of other people. Someone stepped out from the crowd. Chen. He wasn't holding a black marker, but a silver object. A scalpel. Swallowing hard, I plead for him to stop. He only looks at me with disgust. Slowly, he brought the blade to my chest and carved words into my exposed skin. I yell out in pain as he drags the scalpel through my flesh. When he finishes, he disappears back into the crowd, leaving me standing in pain.

"Ugly, fat, poser, humiliation, short-ass, die"

That's what the gashes in my skin read. My head whipped back up as I heard a familiar laugh come from the crowd. In the middle of the mob, Chen stood there, pointing and laughing. Soon enough, my classmates, the people I trusted, all stared at me, laughing. Laughing at my insecurities. Tears started to pour down my face, leaving stains on my cheeks. A voice came from the crowd, moments later. "Aw, look! The bitch is crying! That means he's a crybaby too!" She snickered. People laughed again, only causing me to sob louder and harder. The crowd soon disappeared from existence, leaving me and my dispiriting atmosphere alone, chained up and crying.

The horror ended when I woke from this reality and sat up in my bed, gasping for air and choking out sobs. Now awake, I freaked out. I never asked for this. I never wanted to see that. Now clutching my head in my hands, I hunched over crying. Biting my lip, I tried my hardest to keep my cries to a minimum and stay calm. That's when a voice tore through the room.

"Minseok?"

Chen's voice sounded worried, maybe a little alarmed. Startled at hearing his sudden voice, I lifted my head up quickly. Despite the dim light of the moon casting shadows across the room, I could see his facial features quite clearly. He was... concerned? About me? Much different from the side of him that I met in my dream. But of course, he was different from the one in the dream. That side of him was made in my head... all in my head. Chen in real life would never purposely cause physical or emotional hurt toward someone... would he? Taking another sudden breath of air, I didn't realize that I had stopped breathing. For a couple more seconds, I stared at Chen with blurred eyes. He did nothing but stared back, not talking. I don't think he knew what to say.  
Before I could stop myself, I kicked the blankets off my legs and placed my feet on the cool ground. Standing up, I took a couple hesitant steps away from the comfort of my bed. Shivering at the loss of warmth, I looked down at my feet as I kept walking toward Chen's bed. I frowned deeper as I noticed my thighs. They looked big in the light pink shorts that went halfway up my thigh. I hate it. My shorts look girly. My legs look fat.  
As I took my last step toward Chen's bed, I attempted to wipe the tears that wouldn't stop falling.  I probably look so gross right now. Red puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks aren't the best mix. To my luck, Chen only gestured for me to get in his bed, not asking any questions or giving any weird looks. Hesitantly, I crawled into his bed, resting my head on the pillow we now shared.

Shutting and rubbing my eyes, I felt a hand take hold of mine and pull it away from my face. Soon later, I felt the warmth of his hand brush against my face and gently wipe away the remainder of my tears. As I opened my eyes again, I was greeted with kind eyes staring back at me. Feeling a little bit better than before, I snuggled deeper into the small bed, accidentally brushing my leg against Chen's. My eyes opened wide and I quickly retracted my legs and body, away from the other person in the bed. Before I was able to roll completely off the bed and meet the cold ground, an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me close to the other boy in the bed. Now with my head against Chen's bare chest, my face heated up.

"Careful," he said and I nodded in response, too afraid that if I spoke that my voice would tremble. This time, I let my legs tangle with the person next to me while he rested his arm on my waist. As we finally settled down, Chen asked the question I had been dreading.

"What happened?"

As the words left his lips, I tensed under his grasp. I took a deep breath. "I...uh had a nightmare." As I paused, I looked up at him to see if he had any reaction. Laughing? Smiling? Does he think I'm childish for being scared of a bad dream? But when my eyes met his, there was no trace of mockery. He just waited patiently for me to go on.

"I was in front of a crowd, fully naked. The only thing on me were black marks of writing. It read out all of my insecurities and fears." I took a shaky breath. "I was chained up, unable to run or hid from the piercing eyes of the crowd of people I know. Just as I thought it couldn't get worse, uh y-you came out of the crowd and wrote out my worst fears using a scalpel to cut it into my skin. Then people started to laugh and mocked me. I-it was something I never wanted to experience. B-but the worst part is that it's all true! I mean look at me, I'm such a pathetic excuse of a person." I began to break down and my voice failed on me. "Fake, annoying, unwanted, it's all true."

"Stop. Stop saying that." Chen's voice broke through my rant in a serious tone. I flinched at his voice. "You don't relate to anything they say" his voice came out softer and the grip around my waist tightened. "Why do you put yourself down like this? You're so much more than you think. Kind, funny, sweet, witty smart, adorable. All those words relate to you so please, believe that they are."

I nodded as I blushed at his words. Nuzzling into his neck again, I closed my eyes. "Thank you" I mumbled. In response, he rested a hand on my thigh and gave it a reassuring rub. "Let's go back to sleep now." He said. I let out a content sigh and smiled. For the first time in a long time, I felt genuinely happy. That night, I fell asleep peacefully in Chen's arms, unaware of the hell that was to occur the next couple days.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS A REALLY SHORT CHAPTER AND IT'S REEEAAALLLY CrINgE wORtHy


	3. Lunch Mishaps

 

**Kyungsoo PoV**

 

"Alright, class, good work on your test. Most everybody did a decent job. Remember there are no retests so work hard in class to get your grades back up." Mrs Wells said in a monotone voice as she handed back our tests. I bit my lip as she began to walk toward my seat. I knew that I didn't do too well on this test, but that's what I get for procrastinating. Mrs. Wells placed the paper face down on my desk. In a whisper, she said "better start paying attention in class" before walking away. Her words left be dreading to flit the paper. Taking the test in my hand, I peeked at the top of the page and stared at the red markings on the page revealing a 63% I groaned and stuffed the paper into my bag. Glancing around the room, I saw many people pleased with their grade. As I scanned the people around the room, my eyes met with one person in particular. Kai. He was smirking. Holding up his test to me from across the room his test had a 100% on it. My anger boiled as I turned around. That bitch got a better grade than me. The bell rang as I packed up my books and paper. Students rushed out in a crowd, leaving me alone in the room. Or so I thought. Just as I picked up my bag and stood up, Kai came from behind me, still wearing that smug look on his face.

"Looks like the so-called perfect student got a bad grade. Aww, you're pouting! Are you gonna go cry in the bathroom now?"

Ignoring his words, I left the room. I didn't have the patience to deal with him at the moment. Instead, I pushed through the people in the hall, heading to my next class. Somehow, even in the midst of a group of people basically a foot taller than me, My friends are able to find me.

"D.O! Wait up!" Luhan yelled as he dragged Baekhyun behind him. Shoving the people out of his way, he caught up to me, nearly knocking over a brunette girl in heels. She spun around at my light-brown haired friend, who didn't seem to notice her at all. Moments later, Xiumin ran toward us, apologizing to the girl along the way. I waited for everyone to settle down before leading the way to the classroom. All four of us happened to share our next class together. Luhan looked at me before speaking up.

"So how'd you do on that test you had?"

I groaned in response. "Horrible," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. He nodded and hummed in response as we entered the room. Looking behind me at Baekhyun and Xiumin, I gave them a questioning look.

"What's with you guys? You look like you didn't get a blink of sleep."

"I didn't." They said in unison and then looked at each other with wide eyes. Instead of drilling any further to their personal life, I went and took my seat next to a long time friend, Park Chanyeol. He didn't greet my presence. Instead, his eyes followed a certain person in the front of the room. Waving my hand in front of his face, he flinched slightly and turned his head to me.

"W-what?"

"Jeez, it seems like everyone is in their own world today."

"I didn't get enough sleep." he responded and quickly glanced around the room.

"That's what they all say" I mumbled and rested my chin on my hand. The professor came in a couple seconds later and began to ramble about a new assignment. His voice was slow and boring. And that's how my day was as well, until lunchtime.

  
•

  
That day, I met up with my usual group of friends for lunch, minus Xiumin. He said that he had plans to meet up with someone. So that left me, Luhan and Baekhyun. Everything was fine, we were fine, the food was fine, just very plain and boring. The only thing that was not fine was the conversation. The only one talking was Luhan, rambling on and on about himself. How he may join a club, go to a concert, meet up with a long time friend, got an A+ on an assignment. Yeah, I love Luhan. He's my best friend, but I just wish that today he would shut the fuck up. Baekhyun wasn't talking at all. For the most part, he was just spacing out. I was just so done with everyone. But as I stood up to leave, I bumped into someone and caused them to trip and spill half their food on me. Boiling with anger now, I looked down at the kid who caused this mess.

"Watch where you're going!" I yelled. The guy on the floor looked up in surprise and slight fear.

"Calm down, D.O" Luhan attempted to soothe. Ignoring his words, I continued my rant.

"Are you fucking blind or something? Couldn't you see me standing up?" This time, a couple of people turned their heads to see what the commotion was about. "I-I'm sorry" the boy responded, voice quivering slightly. He attempted to get up. Just as I was about to push the boy back down and give him a piece of my mind, Luhan stood up and kept me from pounce on the seemingly younger student.

"Stop this! Don't do or say anything you're going to regret." The taller boy warned. I just chuckled dryly.

"You're telling me to stop talking when you can't even shut up yourself. All you do is talk about yourself, but news flash! No one cares." As the words left my mouth, I instantly regretted it. I knew that Luhan could be sensitive at times. By now the guy from before had fled from the scene. I watched as tears brimmed at the corner of my best friend's eyes. He ran out of the cafeteria before any could follow him. For the first time that day, Baekhyun was actually alert and was paying attention to the situation at hand. He stood up quickly and followed the teary-eyed boy. The people watching turned back to their table and began to whisper. I walked slowly out of the room and to the bathroom to clean up my ruined shirt, grabbing my bag on the way.

In an empty bathroom and inside a stall, I dug through my bag and found a decent shirt to wear. As I stripped off my dirtied shirt, the bathroom door opened. Putting on my new one, there was no sound from outside the stall. No footsteps, stall doors locking, nothing. Suddenly, the bell sounded for class. I stuffed my shirt into my bag and exited the stall, only to come face to face with the last person I wanted to see today. I scoffed as I saw the taller male, then proceeded to walk around him. He blocked my way.

"That was quite the outburst you had during lunch. Who knew such a small thing could have such an attitude." He said, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Move Kai"

"And why would I do that?"

"Because you're in my way. I'm gonna be late for class."

"And why should I care if you're late for class?"

"Get the hell out of my way" I began to get more aggravated than before while Kai seemed to enjoy this more and more. He took a couple steps closer to me. I didn't move.

"I'm not scared of you Kai. You know why?"

"And why would that be, D.O"

"Because no matter what you say to me, you're always just trying to cover up for yourself. You do this to be cool and fit in, while in reality, you're just like me. You're an awkward know-it-all shit who acts unlike your real self. But unlike me, you're too stuck up to admit it. Too much of a wuss to do anything about it. Your just a follower of people who you wish you were." I said, looking straight into his eyes. "Why don't you find something better to do with your life than follow others like a fucking lost puppy and stop picking others to make yourself feel better. You disgust me."

The taller boy stared down at me with wide eyes. I slowly watched as surprise turned to anger, with a slight shimmer of hurt hidden there as well. His hands clenched as he looked down at me. What happened next hadn't happened before between him and me. Kai grabbed ahold of the collar of my shirt and punched me. His fist swung at my face multiple times, but I still stood. He kicked a couple times, leaving my legs bruised. The blows kept coming, but I didn't allow myself to fall to the floor. After a while, he just stopped and left. No words of warning or threats. It was just me and my disheveled reflection in the mirror. I was left with a bloody lip and bruised body. I wiped away the blood from my face and picked up my bag. Class had probably already started. Walking out of the bathrooms, I saw Kai leaning against a wall. He didn't notice me as I limped by. But as I passed him, I heard something that perplexed me for the rest of the day.

"I'm just as bad as my mom"

 

 


	4. In The Gardens

 

**Chanyeol PoV**

 

My vision blurred as I watched the teacher discuss a lesson. Not because I was sad or anything, I was just lost in my thoughts. And this time, I didn't have Kyungsoo there to snap me out of them. Speaking of, I hadn't seen him since his recent outburst during lunch. I wondered what happened to him, but mostly, I wondered about Baekhyun. I couldn't seem to get his face out of my mind. He was just so... interesting to me.

_{Flashback to the night before}_

_"A-As you know, or have seen, my father abuses me. He calls me things like dumbass and faggot. Last year, he officially kicked me out of his house." Baekhyun said, clenching the blankets in his fists. We were sitting on the floor, sitting on pillows and wrapped in blankets. I leaned against the bed, waiting for him to go on. "It started when my mom died. She died in a car accident. When she was alive, we at least lived halfway normal. When she left, everything just sort of spiraled downward. Dad started drinking, that's when the abuse started. He'd hit me and then act as if nothing ever happened. Either that, or he forgot about it after drowning in alcohol all day. That assumption changed when he began hitting my daily, even when he was sober." I paused, bringing his eyes up to mine for a second._

_"I would cover the bruises with baggy sweatshirts and tried not to show my face often. During all this time, no one ever knew about anything that was happening at my home, not even my closest friends. They still are just as clueless, too. When I was finally kicked out of his house, I lived in the dorms. I don't have a roommate and my friends were always busy. I couldn't find a reason to go on anymore. All throughout this time, people picked on me, and still do. So one night, I picked up a knife and finally cut myself. The feeling of blood spilling through my cuts felt so right. I thought that was what I needed, what I was missing. That night, the blade became my closest friend."_

_A shiver went down my spine as his words seeped into my mind. I watched Baekhyun as he took a deep breath before talking again. "And I know this all sounds really emo and depressing... but this is about the third time I've done it. No one has noticed it but you." He finally said, lightly brushing his fingers over the bandages on his arms._

_With a slight frown on my face, I looked at the shorter boy. He brought his brown eyes to mine as I finally spoke._

_"You mentioned that people... bullied you? Who are they? What do they do?"_

_"One question at a time," A smile appeared on his face for a quick second before disappearing into the same frown from before._

_"Well, some of my friends, Luhan and Kyungsoo, have always been bullied. They say that they're "easy targets" or something along those lines. I only started getting picked on when the word got out that I was gay."_

_My eyes widened as I interpreted his words. For two reasons. For one, he knows Kyungsoo who apparently is also bullied. And two, Baekhyun is gay?! Something about this accidental confession made my heart beat a little faster in my chest. As silence settled between us, Baekhyun had realized my surprised expression for something else._

_"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable! I should just leave-" He stuttered while kicking away some of the blankets that once were settled on his legs. Just before he was able to scurry away, I was able to get ahold of his wrist and pull him back down into our nest of pillows and throw blankets._

_"No, I'm sorry. What you said before kind of surprised me at first... you also didn't answer who exactly is the one causing you trouble." I said, quickly changing the subject._

_He bit his lip as he sat down beside me. "Sehun is the one who targets me while Kai goes for Kyungsoo." He finally said._

_I was once again left speechless whilst staring at Baekhyun. Sehun and Kai?_

  
_{End of flashbacks}_

   
"Hey! Earth to Chanyeol! I swear you're always in your own world." A familiar voice said as they snapped their fingers in front of my face. Looking up, I found- guess who -Kai and Sehun standing in front of me.

"Come on, get your shit. We've got to go to our next lecture." Sehun said. I nodded in response and gathered my books. As soon as I stood, the two got on each side of me and we exited the room, merging with other groups of people.

"Hey, guys," I eventually blurted out. "Do you know Kyungsoo and Baekhyun?"

Sehun sneered and Kai shifted a bit, hiding a frown with a cocky smirk. "Byun Baekhyun," Sehun spoke up first. "That kid is such an attention seeker, so fun to fool with."

I froze for a second and the two did as well, looking back at me. Realizing my mistake, I took a couple long strides to catch up with them. "Fool... with?" I questioned.

"Yeah, he has such a small figure. You can just do whatever you want with him. He's basically helpless."

His words caused discomfort and anger to settle in my stomach. What he said seemed vague to me, it could mean plenty of things. Some things that I don't want to think about. I cleared my throat and turned to Kai. "What about Kyungsoo?"

Kai avoided eye contact as he looked straight ahead and kept a smirk plastered on his face. "He's a goody-two-shoes, probably would fuck a professor to get better grades. He recently had a meltdown during lunch and yelled at another kid, Luhan." He paused. I noticed Sehun glance away and bite his lip. "I took care of his ass in the bathroom though, I wish he could learn to shut his mouth." Kai finished.

Anger boiled deep inside me. Just as I was about to bust out in a rant, Tao came from behind and interrupted before things could get messy.

"What're we talking about? What'd I miss?" He said and pushed his way into our group.

"Nothing" I growled back, unable to hide the irritation in my voice. "I have to go and meet up with someone right now actually. See you guys later."

"Wait, Chanyeol, we have class! Who the hell are you-"

"Tell ya later!" I interrupted before running out of their sight. My feet dragged me through the halls of the building, which began to clear as more classes started. No matter where I was, I didn't spot a certain dark-haired boy. I guess I was looking in all the wrong places though.

Finally exiting the building, my eyes were drawn to the campus gardens. It's a unique place at our college, just an area made specifically for people to relax and just stay when you need a moment to think. Just what I needed. Flowers of pastel pink and vibrant leaves decorated the gardens. Somewhere in the middle is where the tables were, that's where I was headed. Turns out I wasn't the only one who

In this maze of a garden, there's a special area where a table is surrounded by life. Out of all my friends, I was the only one who had found this place, and honestly, I'm glad that no one really knows about it. I guess that it was wrong to assume that I was the only one at this college that knew about it though because when I pushed back a couple of leaves, expecting to see this place just as it were before, I found a person sitting against the stone.

Soft light glowed in the gardens, casting shadows through different bushes and leaves. In the middle of my secret hideout sat the person I had been looking for. His head tilted against the stone wall, sitting peacefully and listening to music. The scene looked as if it were from a dream.

"Baekhyun,"

My voice startled him. Baekhyun quickly pulled out his earbuds and brought his gaze to meet mine. After realizing it was me, his shoulders relaxed and he placed his head back on the stone, letting out a deep breath. A short silence passed before Baekhyun spoke.

"I thought you were a professor or Sehun or something."

I smiled. "Nope just me."

"Just you" He repeated. A sigh escaped his lips. His eyelids opened and brown eyes stared up at me, sparkling in the sunlight. At that moment, unable to tear my eyes away from his, I was mesmerized. His fingers tangled in his headphones as he twisted them around his fingers. Baekhyun was first to say something after the long silence.

"So, did you need me for anything?" He asked. I froze. Even after making a big deal to find him and running around the campus, I didn't really think as to why I did it. Why exactly was I looking for him? I cleared my throat before responding.

"Uh, I need to change your bandages, of course." I managed to make up.

"I thought you gave the gauzes to me specifically so I could learn to do that myself?"Baekhyun said with an almost unnoticeable smirk playing at his lips.

"Hey, hey, no talking back to the doctor here." I watched as he bit away a smile and rolled his eyes.

"Okay Doctor Park," He said before rummaging through his bag and pulling out the roll of gauze that I had given to him the night before. Along with the gauze, he pulled out a sanitary wipe and tossed them both at me. "Work your magic."

I sat down on a rock in front of him and he stretched his arm in front of himself, allowing me access to his wrist. I inspected the wounds. No difference, really. Tearing the package for the sanitary wipes, I gave him a reassuring glance. He smiled back with a nod of approval as I began to clean the wounds. He flinched a couple times, but not as dramatic as yesterday. When I finished, I went back to the gauze, unwrapping the roll. Soon later, I was wrapping his forearm with the white gauze. Tucking in the corner of the material to secure the wrap, I held Baekhyun's small wrist in my hand gently. Time froze and all I could think of was my grasp on the older boys wrist. I could hear my heart beat in my ears. In my daze, a voice tore through my blank mind.

"D-Doctor Park?" Baekhyun stuttered

I looked up with question showing in my eyes. I watched as Baekhyun's ears tinted red and his brown eyes grew in size. Before he could say any explanation, I questioned his words.

"Doctor Park?" I smiled. His face turned an even darker red. (If that was even possible)

"I-I-I meant Chanyeol!"

I lightly squeezed his wrist, that was still in my hand, before letting go. "You shouldn't lie to your doctor, Baekhyun," I smirked as I watched the priceless expression form on his face, red and embarrassed. I brought my hand to his forehead and hummed. "Your forehead is awfully warm, you must be sick! Lucky for you, I'm am an amazing doctor and believe that your symptoms show signs of extensive flusterization!"

Baekhyun's lips tugged at the corners as he rolled his eyes. Even so, he went on with the skit "Why thank you, Doctor, however shall I repay you for your work? You treat me with such kindness and have so much intelligence in your field!" He exaggerated.

"Let's just say, you owe me." I winked in his direction before I stood up from the ground. "We can discuss a cure for you at our next appointment. Your favorite doctor has to get back to a lecture." I said, beginning to take my leave from the garden.

"Yeolie, wait!"

I turned with an amused smile. "So now I'm Yeolie?"

"I just can't keep my mouth shut today can't I?" Baekhyun muttered, tangling his hands in the wires of his earbuds again. "Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for helping me and all. No one has ever really noticed me in general so it feels nice to be treated to for a while. You can stop helping me whenever you want."

"Ah, you're welcome, but-"

"I can stop bothering you any time if you want me to. I know I'm not cool compared to all your friends. And I can be clingy so it's probably best that you don't get too close to me or you won't be able to get rid of me. And I'm sorry about the names today. I just- like I said, can get clingy and weirdly affectionate even though we've only-"

"You're rambling."

"Sorry,"

"No, I don't mean it in a bad way, it's cute."

"Cute?"

"Sure, and you can bother me all you want. My "cool" friends can get boring after a while. It's nice to have a change, such as yourself, enter my life."

Silence fell between us, I was smiling and Baekhyun just sat, surprised by my words. "I've got to get going now, we can talk later. See you around!" I turned on my heel and walked out of the hidden garden. My lips formed a huge smile that I couldn't control. I almost forgot how angry Professor Wills would be when I was to enter the room in the middle of his lecture.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot happened in this chapter... kinda


	5. Who's Tracy?

 

**Minseok PoV**

 

It was after school. I didn't have any more classes to slave through until tomorrow. I sat on a fountain, waiting to meet up with Chen. In the middle of my last class, he had texted me saying that he was planning on telling me something important. So here I was, listening to the splashes of water behind me and watching people with their friends walk side by side. Chen had been acting a little strange during lunch. He said that he wanted to have lunch with me, but it seemed like he would have rather been anywhere else than there with me. Then the whole deal with Kyungsoo and Luhan. I wish I was there to at least try to help D.O calm down. He did seem kind of on edge this past day.

As I sat on the stone fountain, I began to become more and more impatient. Standing up, I was about to leave until a voice called out my name. Startled, I looked around, meeting eyes with Chen. I barely even noticed the brunette girl behind him. She looked...familiar.

"Hey, what took you so long?" I said looking at Chen with annoyance.

"Sorry, something came up last minute."

I rolled my eyes with a smile on my face. "So..."

"Oh, right. So I have someone for you to meet!" I watched him carefully before glancing at the female clinging to his side. Something about her made me feel uneasy, but I didn't show that. I smiled pleasantly as I waited for Chen to go on.

"Her name is Tracy, my girlfriend." He said with a big grin. My smile faltered for a second before giving him a fake gasp. "Really! Congratulations! How long have you been dating?" I questioned. This time, Tracy spoke. "Well, he has liked me for a while, so this past week he asked me out! I obviously said yes."

I smiled at the couple but really, I had never seen her with him before. And Chen has never spoken of her either. It seems like she just kind of appeared out of nowhere. Silence fell between the three of us as we tried to find something to say.

"Is that all you wanted to tell me?" I finally said. He smiled and said yes as he slung his arm around Tracy. She scoffed and removed his arm from her shoulder and replaced it around her waist. Giggling, she glanced over at me. I could have sworn that she smirked as she clung to Chen. There was definitely something off about her, but instead of trying to find out what, I just turned away. The plastered smile on my face disappeared as soon as I was out of sight of the couple. A tightness formed in my chest as I walked away. Biting my lip as I entered the dorm building, I quickly ran to the shared bathrooms provided inside. I decided not to go to the dorms just in case Chen and his new girlfriend were headed there too. I'd much rather spend a mental breakdown by myself without a crowd. To my luck, the bathrooms appeared to be empty, good. My feet carried me to the sink and my hands clutched the sides of the cool edges. I leaned on the sturdy structure for support, only for my arms to shake. A headache began to pulse at my temples. Taking deep breaths, attempted to regulate my breathing.

"What is happening?" I choked out. "Why am I acting like this? Shouldn't I be happy that my friend got a girlfriend? I mean, that's amazing, what a lucky guy, he deserves it, he..." my voice died out, echoing against the walls. "If I'm so happy for him, Why do I feel that there's something terribly wrong with this whole situation, why do I feel so awful?" I paused. "I can't possibly.....NO," I shouted, startling myself at the volume. My head shifted up to the mirror in front of me. "That's not it, I'm not jealous or anything like that. Why would I be?" My eyes were glossy and slightly red. "I don't-"

The words were caught in my throat as I thought of Chen with Tracy. Happy, together, touching each other, being intimate. My hand slammed on the sink. My limbs shook as I bit back sobs. "No, that would never happen. I could never, I could..." I whispered, hanging my head down.

"I would never like Chen."

"He's my roommate"

"The person I go to for comfort"

"My friend"

"My..."

"Mine."

My eyes widened at my own words. I slammed my head into the sink, trying to get the thought out of my mind. No matter what I thought about or told myself, the words kept coming back to my head.

"I like Jongdae... More than a friend"

The words eventually slipped through my lips.

"But he doesn't like me."

My legs gave out on me and I fell to the floor. I'm in love with my roommate and there's nothing I can do about it. With a gash on my forehead, my head pulsed with a headache and blood now dripped down my nose.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANOTHER REALLY SHORT XIUCHEN CHAPTER UUUUGGHH I need to get past these filler chapters AND THEN it will get interesting. I also based 'Tracy' off someone I don't like...so...yeah. And if you can't tell, she's the girl from Kaisoo chapter 3... as I explained it "the brunette girl in heels" ;)


	6. Yoga!

 

**Kyungsoo PoV**

 

"Oh my god" Baekhyun gasped when he saw my face. "What happened? I haven't seen you since- uh never mind."

"Looks like you're more lively than yesterday," I mumbled a response. He walked by my side as we headed to our class.

"DO! Seriously, what happened to you? Your face is bruised! Don't tell me that-"

"Kai. Yeah, he did it."

I looked at Baekhyun as he gave me a sympathetic look. "You really need to do something about him. And you might want to act fast before anything worse happens."

"Well thanks for the advice, but I've already tried everything that I could. The staff won't do a thing; they're only here to make money, not help college students with their life issues." I sighed.  
Glancing around, I quickly changed the topic. "Where's Xiumin?" Baekhyun looked at me with worry glinting in his eye.

"I have no idea. He wouldn't answer any of my call or texts last night. I hope he's okay." Baekhyun pouted before talking again. "And same with Luhan, I haven't been able to contact him at all. I even visited his dorm and his roommate said he wasn't back yet. It was pretty late at night when I went there, too."

I studied the ground as Baekhyun finished his sentence. "I feel so bad for saying what I did when I see him I'll make things right." He nodded in approval as we walked into class. I had trouble focusing during that class. In fact, I was pretty distracted for most of the day. That is, until my last class. Physical Education.

  
"Good afternoon everyone. I hope you're all ready to sweat!" Mr. J. said as the last couple students came out of the locker rooms and stood in front of our over ecstatic teacher. When I came to this college, I didn't quite expect to have a gym class. This is a performing arts school, so I don't see the point of having to do any kind of sport-related things. Of course, there are dance classes here, but that counts as a performing art, unlike sports.

"So today you will be working with partners..." He said with a huge grin on his face. I watched as people around the room began exchanging glances. I sat awkwardly as I saw that Baekhyun and Chanyeol exchanging glances toward each other. Since when has Baekhyun even known that dork? Biting my lip, I realized that the only person that I could really be partners with was Luhan. I hadn't had a chance to talk to him yet, so it would be awkward to partner up with him. "Don't get too excited yet!" The familiar voice of our teacher boomed. "I'll be the one making the partners. I know that you would just get together with your friends, but this unit is all about going out of your comfort zone. So today, I will pick who you will partner up with." I heard the people around me groan. I sighed in relief. At least I would be less likely to be with Luhan. Mr. J. began to list off names in pairs. I dazed out as I watched people group up with each other after hearing their names. I began to become a little nervous. My name hadn't been called yet. Is a number of people in this class an even number to begin with? I unconsciously bit my lip harder, wincing as I reopened the cut that I had gotten a day earlier.

"Kyungsoo and Jongin"

My eyes opened wide as I heard my name along with who I was paring with. Of course, it's him. I heard as the people around him laughed and made comments like, "don't scare the little guy" before spreading out into their groups.

"So now that you're all in groups of two, I'll tell you what we're doing today as an activity." There was a slight pause before he spoke again. "Two-person yoga!" Faces around the room twisted into disgust. Silence fell in the gymnasium until one person decided to speak and make this whole situation ten times worse. "So we're doing couples yoga with people we either hate or don't even know?"

"Hate is a strong word! I hated a girl in my bio class way back in high school. Now guess what... She's my bestie!" After a long silence, the students began to chatter again. "Now everyone get a yoga mat and meet the two instructors that have taken time out of their life just to teach you."

  
[A/N All the poses explained can be look up and you can find images showing what I mean]

  
**Kai PoV**

'I should have skipped this class' was all I could think of at this point. I could have even simply gotten here late and this probably wouldn't have happened. As all partners were named, the two of us begrudgingly got into our organized pairs, grabbing a yoga mat on the way. Our instructors stood at the front of the room, all giddy and seemingly excited to be teaching all of us. Tell me, why does this feel like an elementary school gym class happening all over again? This whole "body education", which first of all sounds like some puberty lesson for when I was twelve, is making me feel like a child. Were being treated like children, unlike the college students we are.

"Why hello, students. I am June, like the month, and I will be teaching you couples yoga with my assistant, September." She let out an annoying laugh. " Just kidding! Just kidding! His name is Stephen."

"Now that we've all introduced ourselves, let's start. Everyone take a deep breath and clear your mind."

Everyone in the room could be heard quietly taking a deep breath, including Kyungsoo who stood next to me. I rolled my eyes, beginning to do the same.

"While taking those steady deep breaths, reach your arms up. Imagine they are being pulled and stretched over your head."

I sighed as I watched people obey, not wanting to be that one person who looked stupid with their arms down, I reached up.

"Loosen your limbs and reach your hands down to your toes. Don't forget to breathe!"

This stretch seemed to go on forever, I was almost happy when she said that we were going to move onto the next activity.

"Now everyone, face your partner and greet them warmly, thank them for their time, introduce yourself if you are not familiar with them. It would be silly if you did all these exercises without even knowing their name!"

Stiffly turning to the shorter one next to me, I plastered an obviously fake smile on my face and looked down at him. "Thanks for your time, Shortie."

He glared back up at me. "Shortie? God that's so childish, can't you come up with anything better?"

I frowned and turned away, bringing my focus back to the instructor who waited patiently for everyone to finish their greetings. "So the first activity we will be doing is yet another stretch. It is a seated straddle with a partner. This could be difficult if the height difference varies."  
I laughed at the ending comment and could practically feel Kyungsoo's eyes burning through my head. "To do this, sit down facing your partner in a straddle split. Match your feet so your right foot touches their left foot and your left foot touches their right foot."  
I began to position my legs so that they matched the instructor's directions. Kyungsoo did the same, struggling to get his legs to spread wide enough to fit my span. Once our feet touched, and we were in the "correct position", we turned back to the instructors, ignoring the awkward silence between us.

"Once you are straddling each other comfortably," I noticeably cringe at her choice of words, "grab ahold of your partner's hands." And that's it. That's where I decide this is officially too uncomfortable for my liking. "Make sure to have a firm grip on their hands, too. When you are fully situated, one of you will lean backward while the other leans forward. This will cause a noticeable burn in your thighs." In front of me, Kyungsoo held out his hands with no real expression on his face. I took ahold of his hands, which weirdly felt comfortable in mine, and he tightened our grip. Starting the stretch, Kyungsoo leaned backward, pulling me forward. At this moment, I realize the burn that June had talked about. It really did burn, but it was subtle. After having enough of this position, I pulled Kyungsoo back and he leaned forward, letting out a quiet whimper, but still managing to flatten to the ground. This part of the stretch didn't hurt on my part, but I did wonder how Kyungsoo was doing. After all, he is the smaller one in this situation. He must be flexible, or at least in the legs. As much as I hate to admit it, his legs are -amazing- from what I can tell, they're pretty thick. With a little muscle, but also look so plush. My thoughts stopped as my hands were tugged on by the other, requesting to come back up. I let him lean back as I went back down to the floor. The rest of the stretch went well with minimal awkwardness between us. In the end, I was half relieved when the instructors said that we could get out of the position, but kind of enjoyed it in a way.

The rest of the class went okay with only a couple really awkward positions with faces too close or sweaty limbs touching places they probably shouldn't. It was almost the end of class when we were told to do one last pose.

"And now I officially feel like a child." Kyungsoo groaned as the instructors finished saying that we would be doing the partnered "airplane pose"

I nodded in response and began to lie down on the yoga mat. "It will be over sooner if we get it done faster," I mentioned as I lifted my legs up. Kyungsoo stood in front of them, looking down at me. "I swear, if you drop me, you're dead."

Bending my legs slightly to allow Kyungsoo to place them on his hips, I held out my hands as he prepared to finish the pose. Just as he linked his hands with mine and leaned into my feet, he let out a yelp of pain, causing him to back away from me altogether. Sitting up, I gave him a questioning look. He pushed down the waistline of his sweatpants and lifted the shirt slightly to expose a dark bruise decorating his skin with purple and blue. He covered the patch of skin by placing his hand over it, only to wince slightly.

"How'd you get that?" I asked hesitantly.

For a couple seconds, he just stared at me before answering. "You."

I bit my lip, feeling guilt take over my body. Looking down, I bit my lip. "I'm-"

"Let's get back to the pose, it's the last one so after this we can be done."

"But your bruise,"

"It's fine."

I nodded, getting in the position I was in before and he did the same, linking his hands with mine and placing his hips on my feet. He bit his lip as I lifted him off the ground. For a couple seconds, we were able to stay in that position, looking each other in the eyes while trying our best to stay steady. But eventually, we failed to keep it up.

 

**Kyungsoo PoV**

"Owwww" I groan as I bring myself up from the ground and into a sitting position. Now two parts of my body pulsed with pain.

"Kyungsoo I'm so sorry!" Kai apologized as he sat up and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You said you wouldn't drop me!" I whined back. He smiled a weak grin before helping me stand up. I rubbed the newly forming bump on my head as I steadied myself on my feet.

"Once again, sorry. Why don't you go get ice or something and I can put away the stuff. I nod and head to the nurse's office where I helped myself to a bag of ice. And there's another injury caused by Kai. At least this one he didn't mean to do.

Later, I entered the boys' locker room. No one was in there, but there were a couple bags in there still. Walking to the secluded area in the concrete room, I found my bag. Luckily, no one had taken it or touched anything inside. Setting down the bag of ice, I wiped off the condensation on my sweats and reached for the jeans in my bag. I pulled the clothing on and put on a belt. Just as I stripped off my shirt, I heard the door open and two voices flood the room. Shocked by the sudden noise, I jumped behind a couple of lockers. The two boys seemed to be laughing.

"God, this gym class was fucking awkward!" One of them laughed. "I mean, I don't mind getting close and personal with a cutie like Hansol, but damn! The chick could have made it sound less sexual!

"Yeah..." The other one mumbled. He didn't sound as happy and excited as the other.

"Who'd you have? Kyungsoo, right? I looked over at you two at one point and I never noticed what great legs he has," My eyes widened as I heard my name mentioned. Glancing down at my legs, I raised my eyebrows.

"Yeah," was all the other, who I now knew was Kai, responded.

I quickly got my spare black shirt from my bag and put it on. I don't know how I'll be able to get out of here without them noticing, so I guess I'll be waiting for a little while. I sat on the tiled floor and listened. I heard as bags were opened and boys silently changed.

"But you know who's legs I love the most, don't you Kai," the other boy purred. Kai's voice tore through the locker room in a quiet yelp. I perked up and listened to their conversation. "Taemin! What are you doing!" He hissed.

"Shush, Jongin. You don't want anyone to hear." The other one named Taemin said.

"Hear what?" Kai questioned. Soon later a quiet gasp was heard.

"You know what," Taemin said in low voice. I began to become curious as to what was going on. Peeking my head from behind the metal lockers, my eyes grew wide. What I saw was the two boys half naked. Taemin had his hand placed on Kai's ass. One other thing I could tell was that Kai wasn't enjoying this at all.

"St-Stop! Taemin! Please, not here, not now." Kai said, stepping away from the other boy, but Taemin acted fast. Grabbing the boy by his wrists, he slammed him against the sink. I brought my hand to my mouth, covering a gasp.

Turning away from the scene, I listened as Kai pleaded for Taemin to stop. I need to get out of here. I need to leave but I need to stop this. But I didn't move. Soon later, the situation had only gotten worse. The sound of skin against skin filled the otherwise silent locker room. Kai had stopped asking Taemin to stop and now just clutched the sink while his head leaned against the mirror, bashing it every time his body was forcibly thrust into. He was defenseless, unable to react anymore. In my opinion, it was unusually and eerily quiet. Barely quiet enough for my own reactions to be hidden by the noise.

At the moment, I sat against the lockers, shocked and traumatized by what was happening just around the corner. I could stop this from happening, jump out and chase Taemin away, call for help, do literally anything and this wouldn't continue. But I did nothing. I froze in place, unable to force myself to make a stop. I am an unknown bystander in the middle of this situation, sitting with my hand over my mouth to keep any noises from escaping my mouth. What you never expect is the bully to be bulled. They seem highest until they're compared to higher. And in this situation, the one that I had feared for so long turns out to have experienced what I have, but worse. So much worse. He trusted Taemin, right? I know they're friends and I know that they have been since high school. To be raped by the one you have trusted for so long could shatter one's sanity to pieces. Has this ever happened before between the two? And if so, for how long has it gone on? If the ones closest to you are the ones that hurt you the most, then what? Who is your ally when everyone is the enemy?  
My arms quivered as these thoughts spiraled in my head. All I did was sit in silence as I listened to the sound of my bully being raped.

  
After what felt like hours of the traumatizing event, Taemin had finished with Kai and quickly left saying only one thing. "Come to my place tonight or else there will be consequences."

I heard the locker room door slam. After a couple seconds of dead silence, Kai let out a cry of choked sobs. I couldn't stand it anymore. I had sat here the whole time, I have to do something now.

Going from around the corner, I ran up to Kai, kneeling by his side. He flinched when I reached out to him, trying to offer him support. His eyes shot up to me, red and puffy. They were wide as they met mine. "Kyungsoo, what are you doing here?"

"That doesn't matter, are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" He paused, his face unreadable. "Aren't you going to laugh? The one who is always being an ass to you is a fuck toy to his best friend," he said bitterly.

I stood with my eyes wide. "This has happened before?"

Kai looked away before rolling his eyes. "It's fine, I don't need your pity.

"It's not fine! And don't even try to deny it or defend your so-called best friend because what he just did is rape. You were against what he was doing and you shouldn't just let it happen.

Kai's eyes left mine and he wiped some stray tears that were dripping down his chin. Each time he breathed it came out as broken gasps for air.

"Well don't I look completely defenseless. Go on, make fun of me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Looking down on him, I crossed my arms. "And why would I do that. That's something you would do to ruin someone's life and hide your own secrets" I was being harsh, but only to make him admit his situation for being a problem.

"I'm pathetic. This should be shared with the world. I'm not the funny Kai that everyone is friends with and loves. I'm Kai who can't even defend himself, Kai who's best friend uses him as a sex toy whenever he wants, Kai who hasn't done anything about it even after all these years." He blinked back more tears, preventing another round from falling down his face. "I'm always saying rude and mean comments to you, most of them not even true. And just yesterday, I physically hurt you. Isn't this what you want? To expose me? Why are you trying to help me, its useless in this situation."

"Everyone needs a little saving, even the people you may despise. I wouldn't just walk out of the bathroom after this whole time like nothing happened, I wouldn't forgive myself for that."

Kai looked down and his fists clenched. He snapped. Burying his head in his knees, he shook his head. "I don't know what to do." His barely audible words finally came out. At this point, I finally reacted, grabbing a random sweater that sat on top of his bag and handed it to him. After he put it on, I opened my arms and he gladly gave into my embrace. From there, Kai explained his whole situation. How it started when they were young, only as mere touches. Grazes and sometimes playful things such as pinching. As they got older though, it got worse. Groping, slapping, public embarrassment. And soon after, the rape. The only problem is how to escape from it. The unwanted touching and assault.

That is what I'm not positive on either.

How am I supposed to help this boy who just spilled their secrets to me? The only thing I could think of is to stick with him and try to get him to tell someone else.

"Do you want to report him?" I asked once Kai had calmed down and was now just gripping to me for his own comfort. He stiffened after the words left my lips though.

"No!"

I thought for a second. "Why not?"

"That's one thing I can't do. He said I can't do that. I don't know what he'll do if I report him."

"But that's the thing, if you report him, he will be taken care of. You won't have to worry about him."

"No, you don't understand. That's the one thing not to do."

Sighing, I just nodded my head, accepting his answer. He looked up at me. "You don't have to help me with this if you don't want to. I can tell that you're already stressed from my own problems. I should just deal with him myself."

"No, I'm going to help you whether you like it or not."

"Okay," he whispered. Kai's eyes glanced at the clock before horror showed on his face. "Can we talk more tomorrow, I have somewhere to be." He stood up.

"Kai,"

"Yes?"

"The first thing you might want to do is resisting him."

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea." He muttered, not fully listening as he began stuffing things into his bag."

"So that would mean not going to his place tonight." Just as he was about to go out the door, he paused.

"But-"

"Also you're not wearing pants."

The locker rooms went silent as we made eye contact. A couple seconds passed before he put down his bag to get his clothes. Giggling, I walked up to him, taking his wrists.

"Just remember that I'm here when you need help. To carry this burden with you so long must have been hell, but don't let it get you down. Just please, let me help you through this."

He smiled back at me. "Thank you, Kyungsoo. I still don't get why you're helping me in the first place, but thank you."

At that, I made my exit for the locker room. My life just got ten times more interesting than before and also much more complicated.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THaT eSCaLatED QUiCkLY AnD NOt IN a GOoD waY. This chapter included a very sensitive topic... I don't know how well it was written. Constructive criticism is welcomed because I really need it. Also credit to my best friend for coming up with the yoga idea. I'M SORRY FOR MAKING TAEMIN THE BAD GUY.


	7. Double Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAANNNDDD I've finally updated.

 

**Minseok PoV**

 

All I wanted was to be able to mope around in bed, watch sad dramas and stuff my face with multiple different junk foods. The least I could ask for was to be alone. To be able to avoid any kind of human contact or interactions was what I need at the moment. So why did I agree to come on this “double date”?

It started with Chen bursting into the dorm, as he usually does, only this time he demands me to get dressed ‘somewhat fancy’ and drags me out the door. I wasn't told what was happening until we were in the car and on our way to whatever destination he was bringing me to.

“We’re doing what?!” I had yelled, leaning forward in the passenger seat of Chen’s car.

His eyes left the road to glance at me after my sudden outburst. “Calm down, calm down. It's only gonna take a couple hours. It wasn't my idea in the first place. Tracy said that she 'wanted to meet my lovely roommate' and get to know some of my friends.”

“Don't even tell me I'm gonna be a third wheel.”

“No, you're not. I invited Luhan too because he needs to cheer up after…” Chen’s words became lost in the sounds of the engine. I didn't have a clue as to what he was about to say but decided against asking. Like stated before, I intend to make the least amount of human interactions as possible. Though I did wish for a peaceful night with minimal noise, I didn't wish for this “double date” to be filled with awkward silence and thick tension.

 

All four of us met at a nearby restaurant. It was close to campus which meant that it's cheap enough for college students like us to afford a meal. I had been here many times, but out of all the visits, this was sure to be the worst. And I've had many bad experiences at this place. Food poisoning, incorrect orders, rude waitresses and bad service. Even though this restaurant has a 50/50 chance of somehow messing something up, we always came back. When you're lucky, the food if cooked perfect and you get a really sweet waiter. This was not one of those times. Fridays were always busy with the typical school/work week ending, leaving exhausted students wanting anything close to their mothers cooking. Though I wouldn't really think this was the best place for a date, it was popular within the students. It was probably the first place that came to mind when someone said the words “affordable” and “restaurant”.

What makes this time so terrible compared to the rest is the way my crush is getting all close and personal with their girlfriend while my “date” sits quietly next to me. Don't get me wrong, Luhan is one of my closest friends, but quiet isn't really his thing. Usually, in a situation like this, he could be talking a storm if it meant that the awkward silence and tension were to lessen even the slightest. But today was different. For the whole time we've been here, he's only said hello and nodded or shook his head at what anyone said to him.

While Luhan was keeping his lip sealed, that only left room for me to notice through the glass table how Tracy’s hand would travel up and down Chen’s thigh. With a speechless date, I really felt like just a third wheel. Too caught up in my own unease toward this whole date, I was blind to notice the look of discomfort underneath the fake smile covering Chen's face and the worried glances coming from Luhan that switched between me and Chen.  
After a long silence with just small conversations between the real couple, I brushed my hand through my hair in frustration. I'm really wasting my time here. For the first time since we sat down, Luhan finally spoke.

“Minseok, what happened to your forehead?” Luhan hesitated before reaching up to brush away the bangs covering the wound that was made the night before. I winced as his thin fingers made contact with the fairly new gash. From the corner of my eye, I saw Chen and Tracy avert their attention from each other to look at me and Luhan. A look of worry flashed in Luhan’s eyes as he scanned my face. “Sorry, did that hurt? What happened?”

Unconsciously, I bit my lip trying to think up an excuse. “I hit my head on something” Not completely a lie…

Luhan nodded and stood up from the table, taking my hand on the way. A light blush made its way to my cheeks as the younger entwined his fingers with mine and tugged me out of my chair. “We’re going to the bathroom momentarily,” Luhan stated before walking away from the table. I was too distracted by the new feeling in my chest to even notice Chen eyeing the two of us with hurt flashing on his face.

Once we got to the bathroom, Luhan let go of my hand and walked to the mirrors.

“What was that all about?” I asked.

“What?”

“Never mind, anyway,”

“Anyways,” he interrupted me, “how did you really get that gash?”

“What do you mean?” I kept my voice steady for the moment.

“I know that is most definitely not from accidentally hitting your head. You're not stupid enough to get such a gash from just hitting your head on a door, so spill.”

Sighing, I looked at his reflection in the mirror. “I hit my head on a sink in the dorm bathroom.”  
Luhan didn't look convinced, “How?”

I fell silent, biting my lip before finding the words to say. “I was frustrated… I kind of had an emotional breakdown.” The end of my sentence sounded more of a question than a statement.  
He nodded his head in response. “Was it about Chen?”

I froze, my eye wide in the mirror as I stared at Luhan who wasn't looking in the mirror anymore.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“How did you know?”

Luhan rolled his eyes as he sat on the counter of the bathroom sinks. “Oh I don't know, the way you stare at him, how you looked so uncomfortable as his date was getting close to him and the obvious vibe you give off whenever you're near him. That kind of ‘teenage girl in love’ vibe…”

“Okay okay, I get it. Jeez, who made you so salty. And what about you, being all quiet all of a sudden. You're usually full of life and talking about how much you hate our professors and all.”

Now it was his turn to fall silent. His legs stopped swinging over the edge of the counter and his fingers began to fidget the material of his black pants. “I don't know what you're talking about. I think I'm pretty talkative right now, wouldn't you agree?”

Leaning back on the restroom stall in front of him, I gave him a look while crossing my arms. “Don't even use the: ‘I don't know what you're talking about’ crap on me I've known you since high school. Don't think that I don't know what you look like when you lie.

“That was a really confusing sentence.”

“Luhan,”

“Okay, okay, fine.” He finally said, but what followed after was just the quiet drip of the faucet.

“So….”

“Did no one tell you about what happened? Like, seriously you have no clue?” He sighed.

“About what? Just tell me already. It couldn't have been _that_ bad.”

“Okay, so this happened the day that you weren't here during lunch. You know how Kyungsoo was in a bad mood that day and Baekhyun wasn't acting normal. So it was just the three of us and I was trying to lighten the mood by talking, but it ended up doing the opposite. When Kyungsoo got mad at some dude for running into him, I tried to calm him down, but he lashed out at me.” Luhan took a breath before continuing. “He said I talked too much and that no one gives a shit about what I'm saying.” His voice broke at the end of the sentence. If he talked anymore he would break down. I could tell. I took a couple steps closer to him, enough to wrap my arms around his waist, pulling him into an embrace. He responded by resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Do I talk too much?”

“No.”

“Am I obnoxious?”

“No.”

“Am I clingy?”

“Only a little bit.”

“Hey!”

“You asked.”

The tenseness in his shoulders relaxed the slightest bit and a small smile formed on his face, hidden in my shoulder. We stayed like that, in a comfortable silence, before one of us spoke again.

“Thank you, Minseok.”

Before I could respond, the door of the men's restroom swung open.

“Xiu, Luhan is everything okay? You've been gone for like-“

And there stood Chen, wide-eyed and suddenly speechless. His hand gripped the silver doorknob upon entrance and very obviously tightened as he stood still, staring at his two friends who appeared to have an intimate moment together.

“I-I'm sorry, am I interrupting something? Sorry, I'll leave. He said in a rushed manner. Before anyone could react, he was out the door, leaving the two friends once again alone in the restrooms.

Fuck.

  
The two of us returned to the table to find Chen and Tracy finishing their meals. Tracy looked up, her long eyelashes fluttering as she smiles. “Ah, You're back! I was beginning to worry you two ditched us to have time to yourself.” She smirked and turned to Chen. “We wouldn't have minded though.” Her hand found is way back to his knee. Chen’s own hand fell on top of hers, gently squeezing and Luhan nearly choked on his water. That was the first time Chen had reacted to any of her touches. I could feel Luhan’s eyes on me, but mine stayed glued to my plate as I pushed the food around. Today must have been one of those days that the cook screwed up the food because I suddenly lost any appetite I had before as I stared down at the now cold food.  
  
When I finally looked up my eyes met Tracy's. Though her smile was sweet, her eyes read the opposite. Like she wanted me to be torn apart by my emotions. Something about her just seemed so off and I knew I couldn't be the only one who believed that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized that a lot of scenes happen in bathrooms???


	8. Butterflies

 

**Chanyeol PoV**

 

 

Wing B, Floor 3, Room 517

 

My phone read as I glanced at the glowing screen and door that read the same number. Clearing my throat and fixing my hair, I brought my hand up to knock on the door. No one came immediately. I began to worry that I had gotten the wrong door or maybe he was still sleeping. It was an early Saturday morning, after all. But soon enough, the door swung open to reveal a messy-haired Baekhyun. His eyes were still full of sleep and he seemed to be mumbling something about “who the hell is knocking at 5 in the morning” Correction: it was 7 in the morning. It took him a couple seconds of blinking and rubbing his eyes before he finally realized who exactly was standing outside his door (me) and why I was here (because he invited me).

 

“Ohmygod, Chanyeol, I forgot! Shit, sorry I probably look terrible.” He said as he opened the door wider for me to enter.

 

“You don’t look _that_ bad,” I chuckled.

 

“Yeah, ‘cause puffy eyes and messy hair are cute.”

 

“You said it.” I winked in his direction.

He groaned but couldn’t stop the blush from spreading across his cheeks in a lovely pink shade. “Whatever, I need to wash up, so just wait a bit and I’ll be right back.” Baekhyun said as he grabbed a clear toiletry bag and a couple towels before leaving the dorm and heading to the shared bathrooms. “I’ll try to be quick!” His voice echoed before the door shut and I was left alone with a small smile on my face.

 

Soon enough, Baekhyun came clattering back into the room with one towel around his body and another on top of his head, dangling around his shoulders.

 

“You don’t like showing much skin do you,” I commented as the shorter boy tossed the bag and his used clothing onto a heap on the floor.

 

“No, I just get cold easily.” He said, clutching to his towels. “Can you grab me some clothes and then we can head out?” Baekhyun pointed to a closet on the other side of the room. It was then that I really realized that he has a lot more space in his dorm than many other students. Probably because he doesn’t have a roommate. Apparently, that means you have a lot more closet space too because when I opened the wooden doors to the closet, the small compartment was filled with clothing. Half colorful, the other half black and white.

 

“Woah, that’s a lot of clothes…”

 

“Oh, yeah, but I only wear the clothing on the shelves because I already know that the other stuff doesn’t look good on me. I’m not too sure why I collect so much clothing that I can’t even wear. Wishful thinking I guess.” He shrugged.

 

“Are you kidding! A lot of these things would look amazing on you. I mean, what can go wrong with a band tee and leather pants?”

  
“I guess I’m just used to wearing sweatshirts that I never really bothered to try wearing the other things… like, what if someone doesn’t like how I look?”

 

“You can’t please them all, just wear what you like and don’t let anyone get to you.”

 

“Fine, then if you’re such a fashion expert, why don’t you pick something out for me?”

 

“Okay,” I turned around to rummage through the clothing on their hangers.

 

“Wait! No, that was a joke!” Baekhyun whined.

 

“Didn’t sound like it…So now it’s too late to take that back your words.” I laughed, turning my head to him. His cheeks were puffed out into a pout.

 

“Fine, just don’t pick out something stupid.”

 

I nodded my head in response as I pulled out a couple articles of clothing. A lilac purple sweater and light blue skinny jeans. I threw them in his general direction and he yelped in response.

 

“Put that on and then show me,” I said, turning around. He probably didn’t want to watch him. That would be creepy.

 

Baekhyun nodded as he let go of the towels and began to get dressed in the clothing I picked out. Moments later, Baekhyun called out saying that he was finished. Turning around, my breath was nearly taken away at the sight of Baekhyun in the outfit. Purple was definitely his color. The sweater he wore was low enough to reveal well-defined collarbones as the shoulder tended to slip off, showing even more of his glorious skin. Smooth and such a pretty color. The sleeves of the sweater were quite long but looked so good on Baekhyun. The light blue skinny jeans were amazing on Baekhyun’s toned legs. There seemed to be rips in all the right places. One thing could finish off the look to make it complete.

 

“Do you have any accessories?” I asked, looking taking one last look at his outfit.

 

“Is that even a question?” Baekhyun responded, pointing to the top of the dresser.

 

And I found exactly what he needed. A black, velvet choker. Though it was simple, it was what made the outfit complete. Turning Baekhyun around, I clasped the choker around his neck, careful not to make it too tight for him. When it was attached, I took a step back, admiring my work. Everything about it was perfect. Perfect clothing, perfect body, perfect person. I smiled.

 

“See! You look great!”

 

“I guess I do look pretty good. The choker was a nice touch. I know what could make this even better though”

 

“Oh I don’t know, it’s pretty perfect just how it is. I swear, if you put on some huge coat to hide it all, I will smack you.”

 

“No. look,” Baekhyun said, taking a small black marker from a drawer and taking a mirror. With a flick of his wrist, he made a perfect line on his eyelid. Maybe that wasn’t a marker… He did the same with the other eye, making symmetrical wings.

 

“Damn, you’re good,” I said, switching my gaze from of eye to the other, trying to find at least one mistake.

 

“Okay, Okay, enough of this, we gotta go.”

  
  


We made our way outside the dorms and decided to go to breakfast at a nearby cafe. I had been there many times for coffee, mainly because it was a 24-hour shop. Meaning I can get coffee even at 4am. They also sold homemade pastries and fresh bagels.

 

The two of us settled down at an empty table after ordering an assortment of treats and two different drinks.

 

We chatted for a long while, getting to know each other. Simply things such as favorite colors, our friends, family and memories that we hold dear to our heart. I knew that this would probably end up being an unforgettable memory, the first time Baekhyun and I went out together. The first time I got to know Baekhyun for who he was and appreciate him.

The topic switched from topic to topic, eventually settling on relationships and love.

 

“No! People who are in love hold hands with their hands intertwined, not just lazily slapped together. That’s what people do in the bro hug! You're not about to give your love a bro hug!”

 

“Whatever, hand holding is hand holding. I don’t see the difference.”

 

“Here, I’ll show you. Give me your hand.” Baekhyun gestured for me to hold up my hand. I complied to his request, holding my hand in front of him.

 

“Okay, see how when you hold hand the ‘bro hug’ way? It’s effortless. Without meaning.” Baekhyun started, placing his hand into my hand. I could feel my face heat up the slightest.

“As for when you intertwine your fingers, there’s meaning, as if giving a promise that you won’t leave.” He then shifted our hands so that our fingers were touching, then curled them around my hand. I could hear my heart beat loudly in my ear. _Why does he have such an effect on me?_

 

The Baekhyun’s phone rang in his pocket, startling the two. Pulled his hand away to grab his phone. His eyes widened and he pointed to the phone as the ringtone played.

 

“I gotta take this, be right back.” He said before tapping the phone to answer and walking away from our table. I could hear him talk in a hushed voice. Something sounded wrong. I didn’t look back to watch him though, I don’t want to invade his privacy. He stopped talking briefly before talking again, responding with an exclaimed “What!?”

 

This time, I couldn’t help but glance back at the other boy. But as I looked back, I saw him head out the doors of the coffee shop. Something must be wrong. But again, I didn’t move. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by following him. That would probably be considered rude, but so is taking a call when you’re supposed to be hanging out with a friend. So after our name was called and I set our order down on the table, I began to think that Baekhyun had been outside unusually long. By now, they should have hung up. And I guess I couldn’t help myself but become curious as to what was so urgent that it had to be talked about right now. So I did what seemed wrong and went out the door, in hopes of finding Baekhyun ending the call.

 

That’s not what I saw. Not at all. In the parking lot, no one could be seen. No one was talking on a phone. Baekhyun wouldn’t be the kind of person to just leave. Leave without a word or warning. Right? I wandered around a bit, in hopes of finding who I was searching for. I didn’t see him, but I did hear voices. Arguing, the two people were arguing. I turned the corner to find two people, two familiar people. Sehun and Baekhyun. Sehun held a nasty smirk on his lips as he kept Baekhyun cornered against the brick wall. Baekhyun had a look of disgust on his face, maybe even anger. Sehun sounded like he was trying to convince Baekhyun into something but Baekhyun wasn’t having any of it. Then two hands slammed on either side of the shorter boy’s head, causing him to flinch. I had to keep myself from going out right then to push Sehun away. But I didn’t. I wasn’t supposed to be seeing any of this and it wasn’t any of my business. The younger boy let his hand slip from the wall to take ahold of Baekhyun’s chin. The two were looking each other dead in the eye.

 

“What do you mean? Don’t you want me?”

 

“Who the hell would want a bastard like you?”

 

”Don’t talk to me that way.”

 

“Keep your hands off of me,” Baekhyun growled back.

 

“I know how you really feel about this. You want my hands all over your body, you fucking slut. Why else would you wear these clothes? If your shirt went any lower, your nipple would show, how cute. And these tears,” Sehun’s hand went down to touch the rips in the jeans. “You’re just begging for attention.”

 

I stopped listening for a second. His clothing. I chose it for him, that’s what Sehun is going on about. It’s my fault that Sehun is targeting Baekhyun, because of the clothing.

 

“And what is this? Not even wearing underwear? Wow, you’re just asking for it!”

 

“That’s becau-”

 

Baekhyun was cut off by a pair of lips on top of his. Rough and uncaring. They moved quickly to his neck. “A choker… Kinky.”

 

Sehun didn’t stop even as Baekhyun struggled to push him away. I didn’t care anymore if this wasn’t my issue or business. Because it is now. Coming out from behind the corner, I landed my fist right to Sehun’s jaw. He went stumbling over to the ground.

 

“What the f-”

 

“What the hell are you doing, Sehun?!”

 

Sehun’s angry expression didn't change. He just glared up at me.

 

“What do you mean? I was just giving him what he wants!”

 

“No, you weren’t. He wanted you to back off.”

 

“What about the clothing. He was asking for attention so I was giving it. And how do you explain why he wasn’t wearing any-”

 

“I’m sure he has a good reason.” I cut him off. I was getting impatient and honestly, was wondering that too. But right now, I just needed Sehun to go away. My mind must have been read because Sehun just stood up, glaring at the two of us as he stormed off. Turning back to Baekhyun, I sighed.

 

“Come on, let's just get our food and bring it back to your dorm. Baekhyun looked down, ashamed. I knew that he probably felt at fault for the whole incident, but it was really me who it would trace back to. I was the one who chose his clothing and encouraged him to go out in it.

We headed back to the dorm in silence, not talking until we entered the dorm.

 

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun said. “I ruined the day we were supposed to spend together.”

 

“I-It’s fine, just… why weren’t you wearing any….”

 

Baekhyun smiled, even laughing a little. “When you gave me the clothes to change into, you didn’t give me any. I didn’t particularly want you to go through my underwear drawer and you were right in front of my wardrobe.” He stated, setting the bag of food onto his desk and sitting on a cushion on the floor.

 

My eyes widened. Now I really felt terrible. It really was all my fault. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t even realize that. Now I feel bad, I basically caused all this to happen.”

 

“No, No, it’s not! I just wasn’t careful enough. Don’t blame it on yourself.”

 

I sighed again. _But it is my fault._ I wanted to say. Baekhyun wouldn’t have listened, finding a way to turn the blame back on himself. Instead of dwelling deeper into the issue, I sat beside him. We never did end up eating what we bought. The warm pastries went cold by now and the drinks at least lukewarm. It seemed that we must have both lost appetite and would rather just sit together instead, comforted by each other’s company. Nothing needed to be said. There was nothing to say.

 

Baekhyun shivered next to me, despite wearing a long sleeve sweater. Hesitantly, I put my arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to me. Baekhyun opened his eyes and looked up at me with wide eyes. “You mentioned earlier that you got cold easily,” I explained. He smiled and curled into my body, soaking in the warmth.

 

“Thanks, I’m glad you remembered.”

 

“How could I forget how ridiculous you looked with all those towels piled in such a small frame?”

 

Baekhyun shook out of my grasp. “It was only two!”

 

A fond smile grew on my lips. “If you don’t come back, I’m not gonna be your personal heater again.”

 

Baekhyun rolled his eyes before giving in to my words, wrapping his arms around my sides as I slung an arm around his waist. Even though he was hiding it, I could see a shy smile tugging at his lips. I could have stayed like that forever, holding Baekhyun in my arms, ignoring the light and airy feeling that settled inside me. Something people would sometimes explain as “butterflies in your stomach”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CLOTHING DOES NOT EQUAL CONSENT] 
> 
>  
> 
> Side Note:  
> When I'm in the process of writing, I always make a small summary of each chapter so I can actually remember what is supposed to happen... I obviously put a lot of effort in this one as you can see. 
> 
> Chanyeol arrives at BBH. He basically gives him a makeover. "what are these clothes!" "It's embarrassing, I know. I could never pull it off...but i still really like them." "what r u talking about u could s l a y in these." "K" "Cmon"  
> "Wut r u doin pcy" "ur gonna look gr8 I promise."


	9. Spilled Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special Mini Chapter! HBD!!

 

**Luhan PoV**

 

 

The weather outside was gloomy, much like my mood. No, too depressing. To rephrase that, I could have been better. My day so far wasn’t the greatest. First thing in the morning, my alarm went off. Like, what the actual hell? Is this some kind of sick joke? My beauty rest is nothing to joke or play around with. If I don’t get it, that gets me in a bad mood and when I’m in a bad mood, everyone’s in a bad mood. Then I got the text from Kyungsoo asking to come to his dorm later in the day. (Why couldn’t he just come meet me instead? I wasn’t planning on making an effort to look presentable today.) I’m not emotionally stable for this right now. Last night was a mess. Breaking down in a restaurant bathroom and causing Minseok and Jongdae’s relationship to worsen was not my plan for that night. I could tell that both sides were hurting for whatever reason from just looking at their pitiful glances they gave each other (which both parties were too oblivious to notice). And I just went along and messed up things more so than before.

And the whole situation with Kyungsoo still hasn’t been worked out, which I’m guessing what this meetup today is for. And after a couple days of thinking it through, I do admit that I should have been paying a bit more attention to how he was feeling at the moment (especially when I mentioned test grades), but that still doesn’t take away the sting of his words.

 

Shivering I shook away the thought. Or maybe I was shivering from the cold, it really was chilly. I guess the summertime warmth really is over after all. Soon enough, snow will start to drift down and we’ll have to suffer the cold, below freezing temperatures. But for now, we can still enjoy the change of colors in the leaves to orange, yellow, red, and brown. Though it’s a beautiful sight to see, it’s all gone too soon.

 

Pulling out my headphones, I played a song on low volume. I usually do this to avoid people that want to strike up a conversation, but it doesn’t always work, for some people are too persistent. Either that or just really lonely that they think that it’s a great idea to talk to someone who is clearly listening to music instead of being social.

 

I was on my way to Kyungsoo’s dorm, so there was a less likely chance to run into someone I knew since it was such a short walk. But I guess whenever you make assumptions that are usually true, they’re bound to become the opposite.  As I turned the corner of a brick building, I ran into the one and only, Oh Sehun. I guess I can’t really say I know him. More like acquainted, maybe even less. I’ve heard of him before, I’m not sure if he’s ever heard of me though. But from what I’ve been told about Sehun, is that he’s a real jerk. He’s one of Kai’s friends. The same Kai that has been giving Kyungsoo trouble for absolutely no reason at all. Maybe because he’s an “easy target”, but he’s not! Just your average student who is doing their best to keep their grades above failing level, with an extraordinary singing voice, and talented in various other things. Nothing that would make him easy to put down. In fact, he never really reacts to when people pick on him, ignoring their comments or coming back with a sarcastic response. He doesn’t really fit in the ‘nerd’ category, so what appeal does anyone get from picking on him.

On the other hand, after turning the corner, toppling backward onto my ass and seeing the cause of this all, I _really_ wasn’t in a good mood. I guess it really wasn’t his fault that this happened because we were both coming from around the corner, but it’s just nice to put the blame on someone. And then I realized my coffee on its side, the contents spilling out onto the cement. God damn this kid, he could have bumped anything out of my hands and of course, it had to be the coffee.

What made it worse was seeing his expression: irritation. What reason is he to be mad?! I’m the one who dropped their things _and_ their coffee. He just merely stumbled backward and slightly fell. Before I knew it, he was on his feet, brushing off the dirt from his ass, not even offering to help me up or anything! Sounds like the rumours are right. Before he was able to run off, without a word at that, I gave him a hard glare.

 

“Excuse you?”

 

He looked at me with a baffled expression. “For what, you’re the one that got in my way.”

 

I couldn’t believe this. “You were running and not paying any attention to your surroundings, how would I be getting in your way.”

 

He scoffed. “Move,” He gestured for me to go to the side.

 

“Uh, walk around me? I still have to pick up my bag that _you_ caused to spill.”

 

“It’s your own fault.”

 

Now he’s just starting to sound like a child. At this point, I just wanted him to get out of my sight, but he had other ideas. Stepping on the handle of my bag, he looked down at me.

 

“Don’t ever think of talking back to me again.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “Or what, you’re gonna go tell your mommy?” I provoked.

 

Now he really looked ticked off. Oops, didn’t mean to hurt the baby’s feelings. Maybe I’m more of an asshole myself than I thought. He looked ready to burst by now. Kicking my bag away, he looked away.

 

“You’re a feisty little one, guess I’ll have to show you your place around here.” He said, beginning to take my collar and pulling me off from the ground. But something in his eyes showed he couldn’t do it.

 

“Want to redeem yourself while you still can?” Sehun said, getting more in my face. I could see a fairly new bruise on his cheek puffing out slightly. Looks like the bully is getting bullied.

 

“Give me all you’ve got.” I dared. His confidence wavered, but his eyes never left mine. He wasn’t expecting that answer. I could see him clench his jaw. A smirk appeared on my face when he pushed me away, rolling his eyes.

 

“I’m giving you a warning. Test me again and you’ll really get it.”

 

“Sure, you keep saying that.” I said as he began to walk away. From the corner of my eye, I saw him stop momentarily before finally leaving the scene. He was too easy to read.

 


	10. Confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we continue...

 

**Kyungsoo PoV**

 

 

I had sent the text about thirty minutes ago. He still wasn’t here. The second it was sent, he replied saying that he would be here in a few minutes. The dorms aren’t that far apart. Seriously, it never takes this long. Did he take the wrong turn, or did he decide to take a shower before coming? Who am I kidding, he’s probably still mad at me and doesn’t want to see my face. I don’t even get why I’m so worried about this. That's a lie. I’m worried because I can’t just let go a friend so easily.

 

Then a knock on my door sounded through the dorm room. He’s here.

 

And suddenly, I’m nervous. My body became stiff as I made my way to the door. Taking a deep breath before grasping the cool, metal doorknob. Luhan stood on the other side. He was… smiling? That's strange, he must be madder than I thought. Without a word, I opened the door wider, giving him entrance to the room. He gladly came in and settled into the chair at my desk, bouncing with anticipation. Before I could blurt out all the lines I practiced earlier to beg him for forgiveness, he spoke first.

 

“You won’t believe what just happened.” He said, slapping his hand down on the desk. Without waiting for an answer, he continued. “Okay, so I  was just walking here, minding my own business and guess who bumps into me.”

 

“Wh-”

 

“Jerkface Oh Sehun. And guess what... he turns out he’s a complete coward. He is literally all talk. I even dared him to punch me with all he's got and he backed out.”

 

“Wait, what?! Why did you say that!”

 

“I kept talking back to him and he was all ‘you better watch your mouth,’ and grabbed my shirt and I said ‘or what, are you gonna tell your mommy?’ and then he-”

 

“Luhan! You could have gotten in serious trouble!”

 

“I know, I know, but I was feeling brave. And it ended out well because he ran away.”

 

“But still!”

 

“Okay, Okay, anyways, what did you need me for?” He stated as if the scene in the cafeteria never happened.  

 

And this is where I blanked out on my practiced apologies. “Oh, yes. Um, I’m… sorry. I wasn’t in my right of mind that day and I took out my frustration on you. What I said wasn’t something you shouldn’t ever hear from your friends and I just regret it all.”

 

“Did you mean what you said?” Luhan responded, shocking me. Did he really believe that?

 

“No, No! Of course not. At the moment I just, I just wanted to be left alone.”

 

“Oh.” He smiled.

 

I can’t figure out what’s going through his mind today. “Is there something-” Mid-sentence, the door swung open, followed along by a voice calling out,

 

“Hello, Kyungsoo, D.O, Short one,”

 

and none other than Kim Jongin strode in. Luhan turned around and as soon as his eyes met Kai’s, they lit up, but not with amusement. This is not good. Before I could speak, Luhan was on his feet, facing the other boy. 

 

“So first Sehun, and now you!? God, can we ever escape? Stop harassing me and my friends.” He turned to point a finger at me, “And don’t think I didn't see those bruises, Kyungsoo. And I know exactly who they’re from.” Looking Kai dead in the eye, he continued. “Who else would hurt you like that? The signs point to him, now get out.”

 

Kai’s face had turned pale and eyes were wide, “b-but” he tried to stutter out.

 

“No. Get out!”

 

Kai took a few steps back before retreating for the door. 

 

“Uhh, so.”

 

“Stop talking. Why is he here, how does he know you’re dorm number?”

 

 _I actually don’t know the answer myself._ “Ya know, that was pretty brave of you, sticking up for us. I thought you said they intimidated you?”

 

“You’re ignoring the question.” He said through gritted teeth.

 

“We're working on a project together. Nothing more, nothing less.” The lie slipped out without hesitation, and that wasn’t normal. I usually had trouble lying straight to someone’s face.

 

Luhan didn’t look convinced but nodded anyway. “Okay… just don’t let him lay a finger on you. If you need any help kicking ass, you know who to call. Be careful around him. Who knows what he could do if you cross the line.”

 

“What is that su-”

 

“Are you guys done yet?” Kai entered the room again. My sentences seem to be getting cut off more than usual.

 

“Yes,” Luhan growled. ”but you could have knocked before barging back in.”

 

He just shrugs.

 

“Well, I'll talk to you later, Kyungsoo. And you,” He glared at Kai. “Don't harass my friend.”

 

Kai nodded, I couldn’t tell if he was intimidated or not. Once Luhan left the room, I turned to Kai.

 

“So,” I started. “Tell me how the hell you got my room number. And why you're here.”

 

He made his way around the room, sitting down on the same chair that Luhan was sitting in only seconds earlier. “...I asked Chanyeol, but it wasn't easy. He was really reluctant to giving me your room. Asking why I needed it, what I was doing, how long I was staying. Is he like, your boyfriend or something?”

 

“No! Ew, with that idiot? No way, he’s like my stupid younger brother. Anyways, why are you here?”

 

“I… don't know. I guess I just wanted to talk.”

 

“Couldn't we just talk over the phone.”

 

“Yeah, but… what if someone saw those messages?”

 

“So? You're concerned about your reputation?” _Of course._

 

“No, that's not what I mean!”

 

“Yeah, _sure_. Go on. What did you want to talk about?”

 

He hesitated for a moment. “The...thing.”

 

“Oh,” I muttered. “Okay, what about it?”

 

“I” he hesitated. “I want to talk about how it all started.”

 

I nodded for him to go on.

 

“Taemin and I met when we were real young. Our parents actually dated for a while. My father had recently died and my mom was desperate for something to distract her. Something that wasn't alcohol or drugs, she already was doing those...but needed more.” He sighed before continuing.

 

“So they started dating, his dad and my mom. That’s how we met. He was my closest friend at the time. My mom was very strict as to who I was allowed to be friends with. He was one of the exceptions. She didn’t know it, but he was really a bad influence on me. Persuaded me into doing things I shouldn’t. Especially after our parents broke up for… many reasons.” A grimace made its way to Kai’s lips.

 

“Of course, I had a curfew and bedtime. Even at the age of fifteen. When our parents broke up, my mother forbade me from being anywhere near Taemin. But I refused. Secretly, we would meet up at the ungodly hours of the night, usually when I was positive that my mom had gone to bed. We would do things that I was usually not allowed to do, whether it was because of my mom or that it was illegal in general.”

 

“One night he would introduce me to his dad's liquor cabinet, the next he would show me how to break into a closed store without being caught.”

 

I stayed quiet as I let him continue.

 

“As we got older, he got more comfortable around me. Starting out with hugs and sometimes even kisses on my cheek. And I was okay with it, as I saw it as affectionate gestures. Friends do that, right? But as time went on, he started touching me in ways I was… not so comfortable with. Touches that wouldn’t quite count as just ‘affectionate gestures’”

 

“Why… didn’t you ever speak up?”

 

He stayed silent for a moment. “Because I was afraid. Afraid of him leaving me. Though he did things I didn’t like, he was still the person that would make me laugh when I was down and he was still the one that… was my best friend. If he left, I would have no one else to go to.”

 

He looked up at me momentarily before focusing his eyes on the ground.

 

“I had an unhealthy emotional attachment to him. An unhealthy relationship that I didn’t know how to fix... if it even could be fixed.”

 

“Have you ever told this to anyone else?”

 

“No, I had no reason to. Even after I got new friends, Taemin was always there. It's ironic that we even got in the same college. I’m afraid if I tell, or if I told anyone… people wouldn’t believe me or they would think I should just suck it up and deal with it.”

 

“Kai, no,” I said in a hushed tone. “Why would anyone tell you to ‘deal with it’? This is more of a serious issue than you make it out to be. It’s something that Taemin should serve time in jail for.”

 

“No! It’s fine, really.” He looked up at me, waving his hands around.

 

“Okay, be honest with me. Are you still emotionally attached to him? In the way that even if he keeps doing these things, you are okay with ‘dealing with it’?”

 

All Kai could do was shrug and then nod, keeping his head down to hid his ashamed expression.

 

“Do you want the relationship to stop? The touching you don't like, the manipulation?”

 

Kai’s body went ridged, but he nodded his head again.

 

“Then eventually, this information should be told to someone else, not just me. Maybe a counselor?”

 

Kai scoffed. “I don’t want to feel like I’m a child that can’t even handle my own problems, and plus, aren’t you enough of a counselor?”

 

Sighing (and trying not to get mad in this situation), I continued. “If not a counselor, then how about the police? They would get Taemin busted for good. You could maybe get a restraining order?”

 

Kai didn’t answer this time, instead, he stood up. “They won’t believe me. I don’t have any evidence and Taemin is very persuasive. He could probably talk his way out of it.”

 

The boy began to pick up his bag, getting ready to leave. “But Kai, I count as a witness and I also have-”

 

“No, we’re not telling anyone. I can figure something out.” He headed for the door.

 

“You say that, but you haven’t figured anything out for all the years you’ve known him.” _Bad choice of words._

 

“I will figure something out.” Kai’s voice came out cold and harsh. In seconds, he was out of the dorm room, slamming the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO MuCH DiALogUe


	11. My Fault

 

 

**Minseok PoV**

 

Saturday is grocery day. Even though the school provides meals for breakfast lunch and dinner… I guess it’s not really groceries for a meal, but random snacks. Sometimes it’s healthy like carrots and blueberries… and other times it’s not, with foods like popcorn and soda. Today is that “other time”. I’m not really in the mood for being healthy, especially when my mind is in jambles. Who the hell would even want to eat healthy when they’re trying to sort out their brain. Of course, eating unhealthy snacks doesn’t help me feel better about anything that’s happening though, actually, it does the opposite. No wonder no one is falling head over heels for me when I’m cooped up inside eating junk foods. But that’s another topic for my nightmares. It’s back to reality when my phone rings loud and clear in my pocket, causing me to nearly drop a plastic bag full of food. The caller ID is from my contacts, a familiar face in the profile picture. It’s Luhan. I answer the call and bring the phone to my ear.

 

“Guess what!” The boy shouts on the other line of the phone, causing me to cringe and bring the phone a small distance from my ear.

 

“What?” I responded, readjusting my bags so I was holding both in one hand.  

 

“Ah, boring, you’re supposed to guess. Anyways, I have a few things to tell you.”

 

“Okay, go on.” Luhan is known for spreading gossip in their friend group. I’m one of the few people that actually enjoy it, though.

 

“So I’ll start at the beginning. I was going to meet Kyungsoo and I was just minding my own business and BAM that asshole Sehun, the one that all the girl are in love with, runs into me and blames me for getting in his way, like what the hell?”

 

“Ugh, just another popular douche that acts like they're better than everyone.”

 

“I know, right? But the best part is that when I challenged him-”

 

“You challenged him!?”

 

“Yeah, now hush child, When I challenged him to hit me and all, he was too afraid to do it. What a fake ass person. Just like you said, acts as if they’re better than everyone but really is even lower than the average person.”

 

I nodded, forgetting that he couldn’t see the gesture. But it was as though he could feel my agreement through the phone.

 

“So next, I went to see Kyungsoo because I invited me over. We talked everything over and I forgave him and all, boring boring boring. But you know what happened as we were in the middle of a conversation? Kim fucking Jongin strode into the dorm and was looking for Kyungsoo.”

 

“Wait, are you kidding?”

 

“Nope,” He said popping the P. “And I asked Kyungsoo about it and he claimed that they had some sort of group project together but he was lying. Either way, something shady is going on, don't you agree? Do you think Kai is forcing DO to do something or blackmailing him?”

 

Opening the entrance to the dorms, I switched my bags from arm to arm in able to get through doors and eventually get into the hall leading to my dorm room. “I don’t know, maybe. It does seem suspicious though. I mean, we all know that Kai doesn’t exactly like kyungsoo for whatever reason and vice versa. So it is possible that he could be blackmailing him. But what does Kyungsoo have to hide?”

 

Luhan began to go on about how the whole situation seemed off while I searched my pocket for my keys, humming to agree with certain things he said. Keeping my phone between my neck and ear, I opened the door and walked inside.

 

My voice got caught in my throat and my heart tightened in my chest. This isn’t real, I tried convincing myself, but it was. Everything before my eyes was the dead truth. The lips on lips were real, the hand tangled in hair were real. Chen and Tracy making out of the bed. It was all real. The plastic bags slipped out of my grip, making a quiet rustling sound as they hit the floor. That was the moment that Chen noticed my entrance to the dorm.

 

I’ve been spotted. My breath caught in my throat. Shit.

 

Retreating out the room and running out the halls. My heart felt as though someone had crushed it from inside me, that person probably being Chen. My eyes stung, but no tears fell. It was less sadness that i felt but more anger, frustration but still, hurt. I let my legs carry me outside the building. The sun was starting to set. I could barely hear a voice from my phone still calling out to me.

 

“Xiu Xiu, Minseok? Are you still there? Everything okay?”

 

I brought the phone back to my ear, trying my best to level out my voice. “I have to go.”

 

“Wait, what’s-” I hung up, letting my arm swing to my sides. What now? I can’t go back, I don’t want to go back. Anything but facing the couple is ideal. Then I remembered a text. A text sent from a friend, no, acquaintance of mine.

 

And I knew then exactly where I would go.

 

Before I knew it, I was in front of a house, music could be heard even from the outside. A couple people stood on the porch, smoking who knows what. I made my way up to the door, about to open it before it sung open itself. A tall, dark haired man looked down at me.

 

“Do you know anyone at the party?

 

“Uh,” My hands fiddled in my pockets. “I got a message earlier from-”

 

“Okay, come in.” He grumbled.

 

I already felt intimidated. I wasn’t much of a party person, but I really had no better ideas of what to do. Seconds later, another dark haired man, this one shorter, came up to me with a kind smile. After a bit of staring I recognized this man, despite the dim lighting.

 

“Suho!”

 

“Hey, you’re Xiumin, right? A friend of Jongdae?”

 

I nodded as a frown began to form. “Yeah… A friend.”

 

“Right, well nice seeing you again. It looks like you need to loosen up. Go get a drink and socialize. I’ll be around if you need me.”

  
  


**Jongdae PoV**

 

I never meant for this to happen. Any of it. And now everything is going wrong because of my mistakes. As soon as I saw Minseok standing in the doorway, I was flooded with guilt, Pushing Tracy away from me. But as soon as I saw him, he was gone. Tracy was pissed. She stood up and started to yell. “What the hell was that?!”

 

I ignored her complaints and stood up, heading for the door. But she caught me before I left. “I swear to god, Chen if you go after that boy, the secret is out. Your reputation will be gone as long as you keep hanging around him. You will regret everything.” She spat. “His life will go to hell and so will yours if you leave this room.”

 

I shook her grip off me and stormed out the room. I was done with her. Her threats and her controlling.

 

That’s what the “relationship” was built off of. She blackmailed me into it. The deal was that she’d keep a secret if I dated her.

 

And I agreed. As long as she kept her promise, we would be safe. He could be happy. But he wasn’t. I watched as in the few days I was with Tracy, Xiumin distanced himself from us. I realized that our relationship, friendship, whatever we had going on was beginning to deplete. But I guess whatever we had wasn’t anything to him. When I saw him in the bathroom with Luhan, I felt betrayed. I know that I’m not in a relationship with him, but he just moved on so fast. Like nothing. I got jealous and wanted him to feel the same pain. But he already was, even before I began to respond to Tracy’s touches. Before I could clear anything out or fix anything, he came in at the wrong time. And now it’s all gone to Hell. Tracy’s mad, Minseok is hurt and the only one in the blame is me.

 

Bursting out the dorms, my mind fell blank _. Where could he be, where would be have gone? Maybe he went to the coffee shop, or maybe the dorm lounge or maybe to Luhan’s dorm._ The thought of Luhan comforting Minseok in an embrace caused a fire to form in my stomach to light inside me.

 

My thoughts were interrupted by a small ding from my phone. A text from Suho.

 

“Are you gonna come to the party with that Tracy chick or what?”

 

My hands clenched at the name. Taking the phone in both hands, I was about to respond until an idea came to mind. A desperate idea. Taking the phone in both hands, I responded. “Yeah, but I got one question first.”

  


~~~

  


Entering the house, I was greeted with the strong scent of alcohol, smoke and sweat. People flooded the backyard, were sprawled on furniture or hanging around near the walls. Nearly everyone in sight was holding a red solo cup with what you can guess is some sort of alcohol. Despite knowing the house quite well, I couldn't seem to navigate my way through the place with all the people in the way. In the midst of the crowd, I spotted Lay in the kitchen, mixing drinks and handing them out to various different people. He must be the designated bartender. Pushing through a couple guys in muscle tees and snapbacks, i made my way to the front of the counter.

 

“Hey, Lay, bro!”

 

His gaze was brought up from the assortments of different brands of tequila, beers and vodka to look at whoever addressed him and make eye contact with me. A smile took over his face. “Jongdae! Hey, dude! It’s been so long.” He said, reaching over to give me a high five. A smile naturally took over my face. Even if I am in a pretty shitty mood, it’s always good seeing Yixing. Another person came up to the “bar” asking for a moscow mule. Yixing went straight to work, but didn’t quite forget about me yet.

 

“I wasn’t sure if you were gonna show up.”

 

“I wasn’t planning on it but,” I trailed off, letting the chatter of different people fill in my own silence. The older male spared me a few glances before going back to his work.

 

“Something wrong?”

 

There was a pregnant pause before I spoke up again. “Kind of, but hey, have you seen Xiumin anywhere around here?”

 

Yixing gave the question some thought before responding. “Yeah, I think my boyfriend saw him earlier when he first came. I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.”

 

I nodded, “Alright, thanks. I have to talk to him for a bit, but I’ll contact you soon. We need to hang out more!” I yelled over the music as I walked away from the counter. As much as I would have loved to talk to him for longer, I had an apology to give.

Walking through the living room, I saw drunk, stoned, college students everywhere. Two people were making out at the edge of the couch. The floor was stained with spilled beers and other mysterious liquids.

 

Over a few minutes of wandering the crowded halls of couples making out, I had finally spotted a glimpse of what i hoped to be Minseok. Coming in from the backyard, I found him walking with another man. The two each had a plastic cup in their hands and were smiling as the music blasted on full volume. I couldn’t bring myself to walk toward them. Instead, I stared. Minseok seemed to be quite tipsy at the moment while the other man was just fine on his feet. _Strange_ . This man had his arm slung around Minseok’s shoulder, stabilizing him. After whispering something into Minseok’s ear, he started to walk with the other boy swaying at his side. Soon later, they disappeared into the crowd of people. Not good. I was finally able to realize the situation and began to move from my spot and start pushing through the people, accidentally causing some to stumble or spill their drinks. But the two were no longer present in the crowd, they were starting up the stairs. By the time I was able to escape the crowd and run up the stairs, I was met with a hallway filled with closed doors _._ My stomach dropped and I was filled with a deep sense of dread. I went from door to door, opening each door, scanning the room, then closing it. Desperately, i searched for the room that Minseok and the shady guy disappeared into. Each room was a no, no, no, no, no, until I came to a door. A locked door. This was it, it has to be it.

 

I pounded on the door and jiggled the handle. Shouted and screamed. Yelling “Open the door, open the door!” No response. No noise on the other side, until,

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Came from a familiar slurred voice, right on the other side of the door. Shuffling and movement could be heard on the other side of the door. I tried again.

 

“Open the fucking door!”

 

There was no immediate response except for a quiet, “Huh? What?”

 

There was more shuffling on the other side of the door. I couldn’t take it anymore. If they weren’t going to open the door, then I’ll do it myself. Taking a couple steps back, I took a shaky breath before kicking the side of the door. The wooden door swung open and there stood a wide eyed man standing before the bed where Minseok was laid down on. The first few buttons of his shirt had been unbuttoned, or ripped. It looked as though the man had started to undo his own belt, but stopped as soon as I came in. Before anyone could utter a word, the man bursted out of the room without a word.

 

Running to Minseok’s side, I was able to sit him upright on the bed. His eyes were lidded and speech was slurred as he tried to form sentences. “Jongdae? Is that you?” The boy giggled. “No! You were making out with that bitch ass mothafucker just a while ago, why would you be here?”

 

It was no doubt that he had been drugged. He wasn’t conscious of the situation that could have occurred before I came in.

 

“Jongdae?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I… I feel funny-” He said before going limp and nearly falling off the bed. Before he was able to tumble to the ground, I was able to take ahold of him and struggled to get him on my back. We’re getting out of here and going back home. Minseok was light on my back, yet hard to carry as he was unconscious.

 

On the way home, as I walked back to the dorms, Minseok woke from the unconscious state. He wasn’t off the drugs yet though. Every now and then he would say something like, “Why her not me?”, “will it ever end?” or “I don’t understand” but he would never say anything but small bits and pieces of the sentences. As soon as I walked into the dorm, I helped him into bed. Gladly, he collapsed into the plush cushion of the mattress.

 

In minutes, he was out like a light. Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair. This had been one hell of a day. Settling down beside his bed, I laid my head down on the edge, slowly drifting asleep. Just as my thoughts swept away into a dreamlike state, I heard a whisper fill the silenced room.

 

“I wish you could love me the way I love you.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY I HAVEN’T UPDATED IN FOREVERRRRR. I went back to school recently and really wasn’t prepared at all. I’m taking all honors classes, a few clubs, the school play aaaand chorus. Whoops, I forgot how bad I am at managing my time. Hopefully after this first trimester, my schedule can become a bit less messy and I will actually stay consistent on my stories.... I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!!


	12. The Next Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! Another Chapter!

 

Minseok PoV

 

 

Usually waking up to soft sunlight streaming into your bedroom would be a lovely way to start your day. That is unless your head is pounding and you have an urgent need to vomit. What makes having a headache and upset stomach worse? Having no recollection of the night before. I was in my own bed, fully dressed, so that's a good sign at least. Sitting up, I held my head in my hands and groaned. What could have happened last night? After a few seconds of regret, I looked to my side. Someone was sleeping at the edge of my bed. That someone being my roommate. My roommate who I really didn’t want to see at the moment as the last memory of the day before recollected in my head. He was fast asleep, meaning that I have some time to escape and find somewhere to think over all the actions leading up to now. Shuffling out of the layers of sheets and comforter, I saw Jongdae stir. Next, I attempted to kick off the blankets, of all times that my legs had to get caught up impossible in the sheets, it had to be now? The boy’s eyes opened up, confused at first before sitting up straight and looking me straight in the eye.

 

Yup, I’m doomed. Chen’s gonna yell at me for interrupting him and Tracy, he’s gonna yell at me for always screwing things up, he probably wants to get a new roommate too.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

His words took me by shock. Am I okay? What is that even supposed to mean? Well, yeah I feel a bit sick and I’m kinda in a mood, but is that what he’s asking? After not responding for a while, he went on.

 

“Do you remember anything from last night?” He asked with hesitance.

 

I looked at him this time. “No… why, what happened.” Jongdae looked away. “The last thing I remember is seeing you and Tracy...” There was bitterness in my voice, I could tell.

 

He didn’t look back at me after that. I took it as a chance to keep talking. “Did something happen? Something significant?”

 

“Yeah, a lot happened.” He took a deep breath before looking me in the eye. “Just listen and comment later.”

 

“After you ran off, Tracy and I got into an argument. I broke up with her and went to find you.”

 

“You wh-”

 

“Wait wait, I’m not done. I found you at Suho and Lay’s party but you were with someone. He happened to slip a drug into your drink and came so close to-” He groaned. “He almost touched you in ways I don’t want to say. I was able to get you away from the bastard before anything happened.”

 

My breath was caught in my throat and words wouldn’t come out. Boy, do I have the best of luck.

 

“I broke up with Tracy, but, it.. it wasn’t quite a relationship in the first place. She… She blackmailed me into dating her.”

 

Blackmailed? What could a perfect person like Chen have that could potentially ruin his life. Obviously, I was skeptical. Things like that only happen in the movies.

 

“With what?” I demanded. He heaved a sigh.

 

“It was about you.”

 

Of course. “Oh, so do you not want people to know about your gay friend? Am I going to potentially ruin your reputation so much that I can become a source of blackmail?”

 

“No, No!” He looked up at me with wide eyes as he shook his head.”The blackmail was directed toward you, but she used it on me because she knew that I wouldn’t want it to be spread.” As much as I wanted to stay skeptical of this whole situation, a sense of worry began to take its place as his eyes showed nothing but the truth.

 

But what could Tracy have to blackmail me with? I didn’t even know she existed until about a week ago.

 

“What is the blackmail?”

 

“Do you remember Cynthia?”

 

With one all to memorable name, my stomach dropped. How could I forget? Just the mention of the name gives me a horrible sense of nausea. Swallowing hard, I gave him a wordless nod. Jongdae seemed to have trouble finding what to say next.

 

“Tracy had photos, videos that Cynthia had taken when you two dated. I don’t know how she got ahold of them or where she got them from... I gave in to the blackmail in order to protect you, but… I ended up hurting you in the process. I’m sorry, I wish I could have done _something_ to stop her.”

 

My throat tightened and the next words came out in a strained whisper. “What were the photos and videos.” I knew well of what they were but didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want it to be real. I had tried my best to forget about Cynthia and her abusive ways but the memories never really vanished. She manipulated me in ways I’d rather not explain. It took so much to finally break apart from her.  The only one who had known about our relationship was Jongdae, so how could have Tracy got ahold of this information.

 

“They were pornographic videos that she forced you to do. The ones you confessed to me about right after it happened.” My blood ran cold. Once again I was frozen in my spot, hands clenching onto the comforter and breaths coming out shaky. How did she get ahold of them? It can’t be true. Cynthia was just but a memory of the past. She was long gone now, how could Tracy have gotten this information? This information that would be what ruined my life.

 

“How did Tracy get them? How did she know it was me? Why did this happen?” Words and questions began to pour out. It was the only thing that I could do to stop myself from crying. All Jongdae could answer with was, “I don’t know, I don’t know. We can figure this out. Just stay calm, we can fix this.”

 

Jongdae was still on the ground next to my bed, but he held my hand apologizing over and over again. My hands trembled in his grasp. After these photos and videos were to be spread to the public eye, there was no redemption of my reputation. There would be endless taunting and teasing.

 

Eventually, Jongdae moved from the floor to my bed, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pushing my head into his shoulder. Rubbing my back, he tried his best to soothe me and comfort me by any means. I didn’t even realize the tears that were falling down my cheeks and wetting his shirt.

 

~~~

 

My dreams that night were replaced with nightmares. Nightmares of Cynthia. Her controlling and manipulation. The camera in my face as two strangers towered over me. The grabby hands that weren’t invited, but touched anyway. The memories were still fresh in my mind as if they happened just yesterday. No matter how much I wanted to forget, they would stay like a tattoo in my brain.

 

I barely got a blink of sleep that night.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO YOU STILL LIKE THIS STORY??? WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE IT BETTER?


	13. Accepting Help

 

 

**Kyungsoo PoV**

 

Monday, the dreaded day that you have wake up early after a long week of relaxation and sleep. The day that really, just sucks. What’s worse than waking up early on a Monday morning? Going to class on a Monday morning… without coffee. That’s where I was one early morning in October. My eyelids drooped lazily over my eyes and I forced myself to stay awake. And of course, this class was English. The monotone voice of the professor really didn’t help either. His dull, equally as tired voice only made it harder to stay focused and awake. The next, hour-long class wasn’t much better, but at least I got a cup of coffee in between classes. Usually, I am quite alert and keen when it comes to my classes, but today was just a disaster of missed hours of sleep and my struggle to stay awake. A typical problem for college students, though most of the time it’s because of some cool party you were at all hours of the night or the best hookup you’ve ever had in your life. I, not as motivated enough to go outside of my room, was finishing up the last season of my favorite series on Netflix. And I can tell you, that show is more of an emotional rollercoaster that one could ever experience in a lifetime.

 

After a few stale classes, I finally got a break from the hours upon hours of lectures. I originally planned on just seeking out one of my friends, but it turned out that many of them were still stuck in class. Great. Most of my free period I spent on social media or walking around until I happened to run into someone I momentarily forgot about.

 

I spotted Kai and his little minions by his side. Thinking about it, I hadn’t talked to him since his outburst about why he doesn’t need to see a counselor or anything. Sure, sure seeing a counselor or therapist does sound a bit childish, but it’s quite fitting for a guy as stubborn as a misbehaving toddler. Before I could make any wiser decisions, I started walking to the small group of people. None of them noticed me approach them but Kai, and after a moment of staring, his friends turned around to get a look at what he was blankly staring at. Kai’s plank expression turned into a laid back smirk, probably to make himself look cooler in front of his friends.

 

“And what’s Kyungsoo doing, approaching me like this?” He said, almost in a mocking tone.

 

“I need to talk to you,” I said. His friends eyed me like I was some kind of fool. Just as Kai was about to respond, one of his friends, Tao, beat him to it.

 

“Whatever you need to say to him, you can say to all of us. Isn’t that right, Kai?” He elbowed him in the ribs as if to see if Kai would compliment his choice of words. But instead, he looked a bit unsettled.

 

“I don’t think so. I only want to talk to him, so if you could-”

 

“Ooooh, I get it. Are you going to tell him a secret? A confession? Gay ass.” The other guy, Sehun , jabbed into the conversation.

 

“No! I am not.” I took a deep breath to compose myself.

 

“Really? Then why are you making a big deal about talking to him privately?” One of them asked, I didn’t notice who because I was too busy rolling my eyes to the back of my head.

 

“Fine. Kai, I have some important information to give to you about the whole Taemin issue. If you don’t come to my dorm at six, then I won’t help you with this… project.”

 

Kai looked shocked at first. His skin went from a healthy glow to a sunken color of white. A moment of him just staring at shock at me passed before he took my arm and walked away from his friends. I complained about his grip as he dragged me away from his friend’s eyes.

 

“Seriously, let go! You’re hurting me!” I yelled and he released my arm, an angry expression set on his face.

 

“Why did you say that in front of them!?” He yelled at me, but kept his voice low.

 

“Because they weren’t going to let me talk to you privately. If you had a clue as to what I was trying to talk to you about, then you should have told them to fuck off and let me speak.”

 

“No, you shouldn't even be around me when there are people around. Someone could get suspicious. You hate me, I hate you. So if we're seen together, then people will start assuming things.”

 

“If you keep pushing me away, I can’t help you! I’m trying to be nice and helpful but if you’re so worried about your reputation, then how are we gonna do this?”

 

“Maybe you should just let me deal with it. I never asked for your help. You’re just a hassle if you keep trying to help, you wouldnt understand.”

 

“Hassle!? God, you’re so difficult!” I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Fine. This is your last chance that I'm giving you. If you don’t come tonight, I’m not helping you. You can keep living your miserable life with Taemin always tormenting you.”

 

Kai only heaved a loud sigh and looked away. “I already said, I don’t need your help. I’m fine.”

 

“That’s what you say now, but you’ll be back. See you at six o’ clock.”

 

With that, I walked away, leaving him standing there with a hard expression.

 

And at six, he was standing outside my door.

  
  


**Kai PoV**

 

After the fight, I knew that he was right. I always did. But he can't just so casually mention it when there’s a risk of someone hearing it. So at six, I stood awkwardly at his door, knocking a few times and hoping that his roommate wasn’t there as well. Seconds later, he opened the door with an “I told you so” look on his face.

 

He let me in and sat me down in a wooden chair while he sat onto the bed. He was clutching onto his phone, keeping it secure in his grip.

 

“Okay, so now that you’ve cooled down and admitted to yourself that you can’t do this without me, I’ll tell you what I’ve got. I was going to tell you what it was last time, but you got angry and left.”

 

“Okay, okay I get that I made a mistake now get on with it.”

 

“If you wouldnt keep interrupting me,”

 

“Kyungsoo!”

 

“So, you know how I was present for the.. Rape,”

 

“You’re making it sound formal and weird. Get to the point.”

 

“Okay. Though I wasn’t able to force myself to stop it, I audio recorded parts of it.”

 

I stayed silent. _And why is this vital information? The only thing it’s gonna do is remind me of it and make me uncomfortable._

 

“So, that means that we have evidence that Taemin was the rapist and that this actually happened. We can bring this to the police and get Taemin arrested for his actions.”

 

“No!” I shouted. _Arrested?_

 

“Kai, i know that you don’t like the idea of bringing the police into this, but if you want to be free from Taemin, we have to do something.”

 

“I know, I know,” I sighed. “It’s just, what if they don’t believe us?”

 

“I don’t know for sure, but the least you could get done is a restraining order.”

 

Despite his words, I still had a cloud of doubt fogging up my thoughts. _What happens if none of this works?_

 

“Hey,” Kyungsoo said, leaning over and putting a hand on my shoulder. “Trust me, things will work out.”

 

I nodded my head but didn’t bring my eyes to meet his.

 

Things will work out.

 

Hopefully.


	14. A Long Day

 

 

**Chanyeol PoV**

 

In the early morning, I woke up to my blaring alarm. As soon as I got up, I texted Baekhyun to see what he would be doing later. He didn’t text back or even read the text, so I assumed that he didn’t have class until the afternoon and therefore hadn’t woken up yet. At the start of my first class, I had texted him four more times and there was still no answer. Though my immediate reaction was worry, I brushed it off and tried my best to focus on the lecture. By the time it was halfway through the day, I had texted a total of 12 texts and five calls in which neither were answered. That was when I started to worry. After all my classes had passed and my worry grew, I decided to ask around. That was when I finally got my first answer.

 

“So do you know where he is or not?”

 

“Well…” Luhan drawled out. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you or not.”

 

“Just at least tell me why he hasn’t answered my calls and texts.”

 

“I have no idea why he hasn’t contacted you, I just know what he’s doing.”

 

“Then tell me, already.”

 

“Okay, okay calm your tits. He’s visiting his father. I don’t know why though because he’s an absolute dick.”

 

My stomach dropped as soon as he mentioned Baekhyun’s father. The man who has caused Baekhyun pain when he was supposed to be the one he could trust. Isn’t that what family is for? Not in this case, Baekhyun has voiced his fears about his father before. So why would he want to visit him now?

 

Questions filled my head and all I could do was pace around, calling Baekhyun’s phone number every few minutes.

 

**Baekhyun PoV**

 

“Alright, Luhan, can you cover for me. I’m skipping today.” I said, holding a phone between my cheek and shoulder.

 

“Yeah. Why are you skipping? To hang out with that new boy toy of yours?”

 

“No, I’m seeing my dad. I wanted to talk to him about… I actually don’t know, I just feel that we need to sort some things out.” I started the engine of my car and began to pull out of the student parking lot.

 

“Okay… not too informative, but stay safe, yeah? Remember what happened last time you tried talking to him without warning? He was with some woman and almost threw a lamp at you for entering the house.”

 

“Yeah, I remember and honestly don’t want to remember at the moment. I just want to at least see if we can talk without ending it in a fight.” Turning a corner, I slammed to a halt as a person unexpectedly crossed the street. A line of swears came out of my mouth.

 

“What was that?” Luhan questioned as I put the call on speakerphone.

 

“Some idiot tried crossing the street while the light was green. Too bad I didn’t run them over.”

 

“Damn. Missed your chance. I bet it doesn’t help that you’re on the phone while driving.”

 

“You’re probably right. I guess I have to go then, I’ll update you later.”

 

“Mhmm, don’t get hit with a lamp. Or in other words, stay safe. Bye!”

 

“Byeee!”

 

Luhan hung up and I put my phone back into my pocket. My father lived a distance away. If I spent too long there, it would be quite late by the time I got back to campus, so I was hoping for this outing to be short and sweet. Spoiler: it wasn’t.

 

When I arrived at my father’s home, the lights were off. It wasn’t necessarily dark out because it was still the morning, but it wasn’t a bright sunny day either. Clouds were everywhere in the sky, threatening to start pouring down little droplets of rain. His car wasn’t in the driveway either. I was almost worried that the day I decided to visit, he, for once, got out of the house and had gone to work. I was unfortunately wrong. As I got out of the car,  walked to the front door, my arm shaking as I knocked on the hard door. I should have brought a friend, I should have brought Chanyeol. But if I did that, I would have been a burden to everyone around me.

 

I heard shuffling on the other side of the door. A loud voice and then the door swung open. There stood my dad. He looked down at me as I stood on the stone steps before the entrance

 

“Why aren’t you at school.” He grumbled. “It isn’t free. Why aren’t you in class.”

 

“I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I wanted to see if we could sort out some of our differences.

 

“There’s nothing to discuss. I believe what I believe and you believe in what you believe. I’m not going to bend my opinions to agree with something so ridiculous as liking another boy.If you’re here to talk about your sexuality, then leave. You’re lucky enough that I let you go to a performing arts school. You should be doing accounting or be an attorney.”

 

“That’s just it. You’ve never listened to me ever. You never listened to how I sing and never noticed how hard I work to get better.”

 

“I have. And you haven’t improved. You messed up last time I listened to you.”

 

“That was in freshman year of high school! Sure, I made a few mistakes, but I have improved since then! You’re just being ridiculous comparing my older self to my younger self. If you just saw how much I’ve improved, maybe you can acknowledge my talent.”

 

“No. There isn’t something we have to discuss. And you’re lucky that your mother was around when you came out to us. If she wasn’t there, you would have realized that homosexuality is a foolish illusion. You would be normal today and maybe even a successful doctor.”

 

“Normal? It’s completely normal to like the same gender!”

 

“Homosexuality is a sickness. It was never around at my age.”

 

“In your age people would be thrown into jail if people knew that they were gay! That’s why no one knew about any gays or lesbians.”

 

“That’s ridiculous.”

 

“You know what’s ridiculous? Disowning your own child because of his sexuality. Hitting him because he loved boys.”

 

“Don’t start Baekhyun. It was punishment, you deserved punishment after talking back or going against your own father's wishes.” He pursed his lips and averted his eyes.

 

“Slapping me was punishment for not getting A’s on my tests? Punching me was punishment for my voice cracking in a solo?!”

 

I was yelling at my father, still standing on the doorstep. It was a surprise that no neighbors poked their heads out of their door to see what the clamor was about. Then again, they never did that when I was young, so why would they do it now?

 

After I finished yelling and screaming, eyes glossy, my father only stared down at me. His eyes were flooded with unknown emotions. I was never good at reading what he was thinking. I expected him to either say some sort of excuse to his actions or a slap in the face for disrespecting him, but neither came. Instead, he placed a hand on my shoulder. My muscles tensed under his hand.

 

“I may not have any justification for that.” He simply said. That had never happened before. He had never admitted that one of his actions was wrong. I almost thought I heard him wrong.

 

His hand left my shoulder and the moment ended as soon as it happened. “Get back to school, son. You want to improve your singing, right?” He said before closing the door in my face.

 

I couldn’t decide if this outing was successful or not.

 

When I left my father’s house, it was rush hour. Everyone was getting out of work and rushing home. So instead of heading straight back to campus (and risking traffic), I stopped at a local bar. It was happy hour and I couldn’t even drink. There were many people at the small bar, many seemed like they had been there before and were surrounded by friends. Again in my life, I felt like an outcast. Sitting down at an unoccupied table, I let out a deep sigh.

 

Scanning the people at the bar, it seemed as though everyone was so beautiful. Beautiful women flirted with beautiful men. I’m sure I looked just _excellent_ after fighting with my father all day. I took out a hand mirror to check my hair and apply a bit of chapstick before I realized someone has sat down in front of me. A boy, around my age, sat with a smile on his face.

 

“Hello?” I greeted awkwardly. I’m not the best with social interactions with strangers.

 

“Hey, you looked a bit lonely,” _Oh, so it was that obvious._ “And I hadn’t seen you here before, so I decided to come over and introduce myself. I’m Eun-soo.” He said as he held out a hand.

 

I glanced at his hand and his eyes. _Oh right, I have to shake it._ “Byun Baekhyun,” I said as I shook his hand. Now that I had gotten a good look at him, he was quite attractive, his smile was really bright.

 

“Are you a student?”

 

I nodded my head and his smile grew brighter. “Me too! Where do you go?”

 

This time I was a little hesitant to answer his question. Before I was able to say anything he spoke up.

 

“Oh, Sorry, I’m kind of bombarding you with questions…” He smiled sheepishly.

 

“No, it’s okay. I’ve just had a… busy day. I’m not quite in the moment.”

 

“Sorry, do you want me to leave?”

 

“No, please don’t. I mean- I’d enjoy if you stayed.” The boy’s face lit up again with that same, bright smile. It even caused my once blank face to become invaded with an uncontrollable smile. For the next hour, we talked and laughed together. Eun-soo had an infectious smile and never-ending stories to tell. It wasn’t until I checked my phone to see the time that I had been brought to reality again. I had to get back to campus. Placing my phone on the table we sat at, I sighed. Eun-soo’s eyes glanced at my phone screen before looking up at me. There was a small glint of anxiety in his eyes. I questioned it silently until he spoke up.

 

“Is that your boyfriend?” He asked and I almost dropped my bag. He was pointing at my phone where is said ‘4 missed calls from Chanyeolie’.

 

He went on: “Oh man, sorry. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. Here I was flirting with a cute boy who has a boyfriend. Just my luck.”

 

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I said and it almost felt wrong to say.

 

“He isn’t?!”

 

“Nope,”

 

“Then can I give you my number? And maybe we can talk sometime?”

 

I smiled and gave him a nod. “Sure,”

 

After Eun-soo put his number into my phone and put a smiley face next to his contact name, we said our goodbyes and parted our ways. I left the bar with a fuzzy feeling inside me and it surprisingly wasn’t from the alcohol.

 

**Chanyeol PoV**

 

As the wait for Baekhyun to return dragged out and the sun set, my worry started twisting into anger. Why wasn’t he answering my calls? Was it really that hard to just pick up the phone to see your friend is calling you? I even thought that he may have been ignoring me.

By then, I had walked throughout the whole campus, beginning to become impatient. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. I walked to baekhyun’s dorm room and paced in front of the door. Dialing his number, I brought the phone to my ear and waited.

 

On the other side of the door, a faint sound of ringing was heard. Taking the phone away from my ear, I walked to the front of the door. The lights were off inside, but the phone rang. His cell phone.

 

He must have left his phone in his dorm.

 

I laughed a bit. So that’s why he didn’t answer me. I laughed even more, as though I had been told a hilarious joke. The tension in my shoulders released, he wasn’t ignoring me. My anger from before went away.

 

Leaning against the door, I slightly smiled to myself. My eyes were trained on the ugly carpet of the halls. There was no reason to be mad. Until I heard shuffling on the other side of the door. “Who the hell is laughing out there?” A small voice seemed to say to themselves. I shot my eyes up to the door. Dorm room #517 on floor three, it was definitely Baekhyun’s room. The doorknob giggled before the door opened. The person who opened the door was the same person who lived there, Baekhyun. But how?

 

“Baekhyun,”

 

“Uh… yes?”

 

I was shocked. What is there to say to this? The person who I had been worrying about was right here in his dorm room. Did he even leave the campus? That wouldn’t explain why he didn’t answer my calls. And if he went to his father, why didn’t he tell me?

 

“You… didn’t answer me.”

 

Baekhyun had his phone clutched in his hand. He looked down at it and looked back at me with a sheepish smile. “I turned it off for the day.”

 

“That doesn’t explain why you didn’t answer me now or at least call me back.” I muttered.

 

“What was that?”

 

“Nothing. I heard you went to see your dad today?”

 

“Yes,” He nodded.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“What?”

 

“Your dad is dangerous. Why didn’t you tell me?” My voice gradually became louder.

 

“You don’t know that and why should I have to tell you where I go and who I see?” Baekhyun began to get defensive.

 

“From what you’ve told me about your dad, you shouldn't be seeing him alone. He could hurt you or something!”

 

“You’ve only heard the bad about him !”

 

“You still should have told me so I could come along.”

 

Baekhyun glanced at the ground, chewing his lip before looking back up at me. “Why? Why should I have asked you?”

 

“Because-”

 

“You know what? No, don’t even try to convince me. I am an independant man. I can talk to someone without your help.”

 

“You don’t understand, there’s dangerous things in this world. I guess it’s hard to understand when you have such a naive personality.” The words came out from my mouth before I could think about the impact it would make.

 

“Get out of my sight,” Baekhyun’s face was red, he was undoubtedly mad. “Get the hell out of my fucking sight.” He shouted then slammed the door.

 

I couldn’t decide whether to be infuriated or regretful.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is happy hour a worldwide term?


	15. Two Weeks Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in 3rd person just because it's a time skip and goes through all the couples... not just one person in the couple. Tell me what you think of this?

 

**3rd Person!!**

 

“Are you sure this will work out?” Kai said, anxiously twisting his hands in his lap.

“I don’t know for sure, but all we can do is hope for the best,” Kyungsoo responded.

They were are the police station.

“Why couldn’t we just go to the campus police?”

“Because they’re kinda shitty and never do anything about crimes on campus. I don’t think that they would be able to help with this kind of situation. The local police might be able to do better.”

“Kim Jongin, would you come into the interview room?” A man cut into their conversation as he walked into the waiting room.

They had called the police department and reported the rape earlier and soon were brought in for questioning. Kai stood up hesitantly before he disappeared into the interviewing room. Kyungsoo gave him the best reassuring smile that he could possibly muster.

Inside the room were three white chairs and a white table. On the table sat a bottle of water and a box of tissues. A camera was hidden in the corner of the room. The detective that brought Kai into the room sat down next to yet another detective. One of them, Detective Jimin, had a warm smile on his face. The other, Detective Jeongguk, had a blank expression that made Kai feel a bit more unsettled than before. After a few silent seconds, Detective Jeongguk flipped a page on his notepad. Introductions were made briefly, then the questions started.

“Earlier in the week, you called to report a rape. Can you elaborate on the events that occurred? In order.”

“Yes,” Kai started, voice shaky. “It happened four weeks ago today. I was changing in the boy's locker rooms.”

The two stared at him intensely, waiting for him to continue. After a deep breath, Kai grounded himself and started again.

“Actually, this all started when I was about seven years old,”

  
~~~

 

After what seemed like a painfully long and distressing questioning, Kai exited the small, white room. As soon as he entered the lobby, Kyungsoo’s head shot up to look him. Standing up from the uncomfortably hard chairs, Kyungsoo walked up to him took a gentle hold of his arm.

“Are you okay? What did they ask?” He asked looking up at him.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just… a bit anxious.”

Kyungsoo nodded and motioned for them to sit on the chairs while they wait for another word from the police and detectives. Silence fell between the boys. Neither knew how to act in this situation. Moments later, the same detective that questioned Kai came in and asked for Kyungsoo to follow him. The said man stood up, giving Kai a reassuring glance before heading towards the room.

Kyungsoo sat down in an empty white chair and so did the detective that had called him in. After introductions, they asked a few simple questions.”

“What is your relationship with Kim Jongin.”

“We’re… friends.”

“How long have you known each other?”

“We have known each other since high school. We weren’t exactly friends back then and weren’t until this year.”

“What caused you to become friends this year?”

“I… we became friends after a group project.”

Detective Jimin nodded at the response before writing something on his notepad. Looking back up, he spoke for the first time.

“You were present for the rape, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me exactly what happened in your point of view.”

“I was changing in the boy's locker rooms alone. When someone came in, Kai, I stayed-”

“Kai?”

“That’s his… nickname. Kim Jongin’s nickname.” The detectives stayed silent after Kyungsoo’s statement, so he continued.

“I stayed silent and continued changing. Soon later, another person came in. I kept packing up my clothes and was getting ready to leave until I listened to their conversation. I recognized ka- Jongin’s voice but not the other. Taemin was starting to say some suggestive things that seemed to be making Jongin uncomfortable. Taemin began to touch him inappropriately and then… forced himself onto Jongin without any kind of consent.”

The two stayed silent, writing furiously on their pads of paper. Not a word was said until they stopped writing.

“Why didn’t you stop the rape by yelling, calling for help, or stepping in. Were there any personal feelings that got in the way. Maybe did you not like Jongin so didn’t want to help him?” Detective Jeongguk asked, looking up to make eye contact with Kyungsoo.

“No. when I realized what happened, I froze. I- I couldn’t bring myself to stand up or walk or yell or anything! I just wish that I could have stopped it and-”

“Woah, Woah, it’s okay. There was nothing you could do. You were scared and couldn’t force yourself to make an action.” Detective Jimin soothed.

“But, there was one thing I managed to do.”

Detective Jeongguk looked up from his writing with a question at the tip of his tongue. Kyungsoo began to pull his phone out of his coat pocket. “I audio recorded it.”

For the first time that interview, the two detectives made a reaction to his words. Jeongguk sat up in his seat and Jimin glanced down at the phone with his eyebrows raised.

“Then let’s hear it,” Jimin said, nodding his head to the phone.

 

~~~

  
Kyungsoo walked out of the room with the detectives trailing behind quietly. Detective Jimin and Detective Jeongguk discussed the next actions to be made before letting the two boys go. Then Kyungsoo and Kai left the police station. As soon as they took a step outside, Kyungsoo looked up at Kai, waiting for him to say something. Instead, Kai wrapped his arms around Kyungsoo’s waist and brought him into a tight hug. Kyungsoo was startled, shocked even for a moment until his brain screamed at him to hug the boy back. As soon as Kyungsoo gave in to the embrace, Kai spoke up.

“We did it,” Kai said into Kyungsoo’s neck.

“Yes,” Kyungsoo simply responded.

“I… I don’t know how to feel.”

“You don’t have to decide that yet. What’s important is that you went through with it. Now you can finally relax.”

Kai nodded, squeezing Kyungsoo’s torso ever so slightly. He can breathe easy now, even if it won’t last, he feels relieved.

 

* * *

 

Chanyeol was stressed. It had been exactly two weeks since him and Baekhyun talked last, and that was since they had fought. He didn’t know what caused him to end up standing in front of the boy’s dorm room, but here he was now, standing stiffly in front of the door. He gathered the courage to knock on the hard wooden door with a deep breath. The first time he knocked on this door, he was nervous but not nearly as nervous as he was today. Today was a whole different level of anxiety.

After knocking once, there was no answer. Twice, he heard shuffling. The third time, he added a “Hello? You there Baek?” and heard feet stopping in front of the door. There was a long pause, long enough to worry that Baekhyun was just going to stand there and never let him in. But as Chanyeol began to pace outside the door, the doorknob twisted and the door opened a crack. Chanyeol stopped pacing and brought his hand to open the door wider. His eyes met with the dark ones of Byun Baekhyun. He looked broken down, tired and stressed. It was obvious that it had been a while since he had eaten from the way his normally rosy cheeks were pale and seemed to be caved in a bit. Unusual from his normal pretty, supple cheeks. His hair was messy and clothing was wrinkled. It took Chanyeol a second before he took a big step toward Baekhyun and enveloped him in a tight hug. He was careful and gentle, afraid that any tighter and he would break the poor boy. He seemed so fragile, already starting to break into pieces after a hard fall. But Chanyeol was there, ready to piece together those broken shards of glass and glue them back, even if it took forever, even if he got pricked by a few pieces in the process. He was ready to fix his mistakes and apologize.

It seemed that Baekhyun was ready too.

 

* * *

 

After the whole relationship with Tracy and Jongdae ended, everyone was nervous. Particularly Jongdae and Minseok. They were afraid of what she would do, what she was capable of. A few days passed since Tracy and Chen broke up and the drama had started. Through social media outlets, Tracy sent, posted, and spread any way she could, videos and pictures, even rants about Minseok. She told lies and spread rumors. The next time Minseok went to class, he felt all eyes on him, whispers echoing in the room. Wherever he went, he felt as though someone was staring. It made him so uncomfortable. He didn’t want to be seen anymore, he just wanted to disappear. Soon enough, his friends had heard (or seen) about this. Their reaction is what he dreaded the most. Baekhyun is probably angry. Luhan is probably disgusted and wished he never became my friend. That was all he could think. When his friends cornered him before dinner, he expected hurtful comments, rude remarks and then one of them declaring that he wasn’t allowed to even be near them again. Then he realized the concern in their eyes. He felt bad for even thinking his friends in that way. As soon as they voiced their worries, he couldn’t help but let out the pent up emotions and stress right then and there in the hallways outside the dining commons. The two offered Minseok their support and comfort.

But that wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg.

Minseok now knew his friends wouldn’t just dump him for a mistake that wasn’t even his fault. He also knew that they were reliable and quite diligent when they want to be, but he never expected them to set up a campaign to fight against online bullying right there at their college.

And what he definitely didn’t expect was for so many people to join the campaign and even give him support. Luhan and Baekhyun had told people the whole story behind the Tracy dilemma and their story began to spread. The truth about what Tracy had done. Only a week after the campaign had started, Minseok had people come up to him and have a discussion on what had happened and random people telling him that they are there to support him. It was strange knowing that everyone knew some of the most private information he had, but in a way, it was better that way. The truth was better than the lies that Tracy had been spurring.

Though there were still the occasional judging stares coming from strangers on campus and the very few people cursing him and saying things that were uncalled for, they couldn’t get everyone on his side. But the majority of people Minseok came across had made a supportive comment before walking off. Many were likely to forget about the drama between Minseok and Tracy, but they would always see Minseok as the stronger person in the story. Throughout this whole thing, Jongdae was there, giving moral support while Minseok got all the attention. Occasionally, he would get recognized by students too, but mainly was just the supporting character.

After the campaign became more and more popular, Tracy wasn’t heard of anymore. There was no Tracy to terrorize Jongdae or Minseok. It was as though she had disappeared.

 

* * *

 

After the day that Luhan had run into Sehun, or Sehun had run into Luhan, it seemed that the two boys were always crossing paths. It was beginning to piss Luhan off. It seemed everywhere he turned, he was nearly crashing into the taller male. When he went for coffee, Sehun was always at a nearby table. He realized that he had quite a few classes with him too. He also noticed staring every so often. Sometimes it was in the middle of class, he felt as though someone was staring at him. When he turned around, he would find Sehun gazing dazedly in his direction. What was most exasperating was that he wouldn’t even look away. He would stare right back into Luhan’s eyes, sometimes quirk his eyebrow. By the time Luhan would tear his eyes away, his cheeks would be burning and anger boiled in his stomach. It felt almost stalker-ish. But that wasn’t quite the case. It simply was a matter of coincidence. Or at least that’s what Luhan wanted to believe.

After class one night, Luhan had taken his time to grab his bag. It was an excruciatingly long class and he just wanted to go to his dorm and forget about the assignment for photography class and an essay he had due. But that wasn’t possible if he wanted to get good grades. So instead, he decided to procrastinate for as long as possible before starting to work again. As the professor began to get more impatient waiting for him to leave, Luhan picked up his bag and papers, thanked this professor and rushed out the door.

The halls were empty by the time he left the classroom. It was the latest class that the school offered. As soon as the doors were opened and class was dismissed it was no surprise that everyone wanted to get the hell out of there so they could get back to their dorm. Not to mention, but the halls at night are quite sketchy.

As soon as Luhan got to his dorm, he began to work on the essay. I took a good hour to get make a half-assed effort to finish it. Then he had to worry about editing photos for his photography class. Halfway done with a photo and his eyes were drooping and body was slowly starting to protest his lack of sleep. It was shutting down on him. A few minutes later and Luhan had fallen asleep with his head rested on his laptop that sat on top of the desk. His hand still held a dull pencil. He didn’t wake up until two hours later to the sound of a crash.

Jolting awake, Luhan sat up straight in his chair. It was still dark out. In fact, there was no light in his room at all. His clock was off, lights were off. There was a power outage. The wind blew hard on the singular window in Luhan’s dorm. He shivered as he stood up from his seat. No electricity means no heat.

When there’s no heat, Luhan can’t sleep. There was a fire in the lobby that could be of use, though, so that’s where Luhan was headed to. After grabbing his dorm keys and wrapping a blanket around his shoulders, he walked half asleep to the lobby and nearly tripped down a few stairs. To his surprise, he wasn’t the only person who had the idea to go to the lobby for heat. There, in the same seat as earlier in the night, sat Sehun. He hummed to a song quietly as he sat in front of the fire. Luhan was about ready to turn around and leave but reminded himself that he wasn’t about to let one person prevent him from getting his much-needed warmth.

So Luhan sat down a good distance away from Sehun in an old leather chair. It had most likely been in that lobby for a good five years by now. Sat in by many different people, probably had many different types of liquids spill onto the material in the past years. But he didn’t want to think of that at the moment. He wanted to focus on regaining some warmth and maybe getting a blink of sleep, but with Sehun so close by, it was hard to relax enough to fall asleep. But as the crackle of the fire continued and the wind blew hard against the windows, he was slowly lulled into a peaceful state. All good things must come to an end eventually, though.

“What’s your name again?”

Opening his dreary eyes that were just about to fall into a much-needed sleep, Luhan glared at Sehun. Instead of answering Sehun’s statement, he just groaned and rested his head back on the leather seat. Sehun continued to talk. “Luhan, right? You’re friends with Baekhyun who is friends with Chanyeol who is friends with Kai. Chanyeol and Kai are both friends of mine.”

Luhan turned his head to stare at Sehun again. “What’s your point?”

“Nothing. Just a thought.”

Luhan took a moment to wait for him to continue talking, but the boy never spoke again. Luhan’s eyelids felt as though weights were pulling them down. His head fell back onto the armrest of the chair. He had nearly fallen into a deep sleep when Sehun said: “Lil fucker fell asleep. This is what happens when I try to be social.”  
At the moment, Luhan wasn’t sure if what he heard was just in his head or reality, but either way, a small smile formed on his face before he slipped into a short state of rest.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay but I couldn’t think of any names for the detectives so I just used Jimin and Jeongguk and all I could think about was that one BTS run episode.  
> Also “a short state of rest”?? That just sounds stupid but I couldn’t think of another way to say “he fell asleep”
> 
> Anyways… Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. Happy Holidays!


	16. Announcement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY!!

I am sorry to say that I won't be continuing this series. There are a few reasons for this. The first being that my passion for this story died. I loved the idea of the story when i was first writing it. I was so excited to write the next chapter because i knew exactly where this story would be heading. But as the school year started and i started writing less and less, my love for this story started to disintegrate. The whole concept of the story felt so fake and unrealistic. And yeah of course it's gonna be fake, it's an AU. Even so, there still should be a sense of reality in AU stories. The detail that really ticked me off was the unrealistic personality traits. They didn't seem to be even close to the real thing. When i re-read it I just kinda thought 'he would never say that' or 'he wouldn't act like that at all' 

The second reason for discontinuing is due to my lack of time management. I honestly suck at managing my time. You may think that as it nears summer, students should have more time and freedom but i've really packed my schedule this year. When i first started this series, I had a lot more time on my hands. I used writing as a hobby. But by the end of last year and into this year, I've become the busiest I've ever been. Finding time to force myself to write a series I feel so detached from would end up being more of a chore rather than a hobby.

And lastly, I feel that a lot of the topics were too... sensitive. Even if i put the correct rating onto the story, I still feel that the themes in this story shouldn't be posted. I mean, It talks about rape, suicide, illness, you name it. I just feel that all these topics smushed into one story is a huge slap in the face of depression. 

 

As an apology, I'll be posting the notes I had for all the next chapters up until the ending.  

 

 

**16 Chanbaek** ; They will become a thing. They really rush into this relationship and I want people to understand that. They are together happy.

 

**17 Kaisoo** ; Kaisoo are the spotlight couple honestly. Kai needs time to recover from Taemin, there’s court to deal with upon the homework and friend drama. So kai resorts to partying (stupid). Kyungsoo is dragged to a party with chanbaek and gets ditched, but instead finds kai getting smashedddd. Kyungsoo drags him away to outside and tells him to sober up and to leave the party. KS makes him leave and drags him back to the dorms. Not knowing where Kai’s dorm is, KS sneaks Kai into his own dorm. He ends up staying up late, trying to keep him under control. Instead, he finds out more of kai’s secrets. The secret being something bad his mum did to him. Like maybe kicking him out for wanting to be a dancer or she’s abusive. But we’ve already got an abusive parent :/ The next morning, kai wakes up and realizes where he is. KS lectures him into not getting drunk and tells him not to go out anymore, but doesn’t end up talking about what Kai told him. 

 

**18 HUNHAN** -become friends. Idk how, but it’ll happen. 

 

**19 Kaisoo** ; KS tells Luhan something about kai (like his concerns about his mom) that he wasn’t supposed to, the word gets out. Kai finds out about it from the daily gossip and confronts KS. KS admits that he mentioned it to a friend, but it was only bc he was concerned and didn’t know how to go about it. Kai says that he wasn’t supposed to know about it and no one was. Kai is pissed and leaves, KS tried to keep sorting it out, but kai tells him to leave him alone.

 

**20 Chanbaek** ; chanyeol has to skip school to see his parents. Baek doesn’t hear back from him until the next morning, saying that everything is okay. When CY comes back, he acts weird, distant even. Eventually, he tells baek about how his parents is forcing him to an arranged marriage. The end of this chap will be both rlly sad but promising that they still love each other. 

 

**21 Xiuchen** ; Xiu wants to talk to Luhan, but he’s not answering his calls or anything. “That fucker is probably pissing off Sehun like the annoying shit he is” He’s a bit anxious to talk to Chen about what their relationship is. He doesn’t know what their label is. Plus- Chen confessing that he gets jealous over Luhan. 

 

**22 Kaisoo** **;** They see each other in the halls, around town and basically everywhere, but Kai ignores him. KS can’t stand being without him for much longer. He didn’t realize how attached he had gotten to the other boy until they stopped talking and hanging out. KS gets the courage to talk to him at his dorms, but kai isn’t there. His roommate tells him where he is and kyungsoo goes to find him. He finds him and begins to talk. Kai is still really mad at him tho, so as KS tried to explain himself again, Kai gets really mad for some reason and punches KS in the stomach and leaves. He only goes to the door to see if KS would come back for him. Instead, he hears something that he had never hear the stone souled KS do; Cry. Kai is about to go back in and see if KS is okay, but KS comes out trying to call for him. When they see each other again, kai picks KS up from the ground and bring him into a hug as he says ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. Kyungsoo is like ‘no i’m sorry stop apologising’ and they end up making up. 

  
  


**23 Kaisoo** ; How about they’re hanging at Kai’s dorm and they’re just having a fun time. 

The typical ‘they both lean in and then someone walks in’ happens and they’re both slightly shook from their actions. KS is worried that he was the only one leaning in and he was just imagining kai leaning in. it ends up that when kyungsoo leaves, kai places a hesitant kiss on KS’s lips before he leaves. 

But i like my stories spicy soooo I was planning on having them be tension filled and “accidentally” kissing despite the tension. 

 

**24 Xiuchen** ; some fluff and maybe some light smut idk bro I’m not good with this shit. It will be Xiuchen nevertheless

 

**25 Kaisoo** ; they’re experimenting with each other and KS is sure to be careful not to push kai’s boundaries. At the end of this chap, they’re official.

 

**26 ALL Couples** ; TIME SKiP 

-KS meets Kai’s mom. She doesn’t approve. She’s homophobic and hates them. Kai’s dad is no longer. KS parents are dead. 

-Chanbaek:The arranged wedding happened and Baek is at school. His friends know he’s in pain, so they bring him out for a little get together but no one is happy when baek is sad though. When he returns home, Baek gets a text from CY- an address, date and time.

-Xiuchen: ???? 

-HunHan; Luhan goes on about he doesn’t know the relationship he has with Sehun. Recently, they went to a party and slept together… maybe. Or maybe they’re makeout buddies. 

 

**27 Kaisoo** ; in the middle of the night, they together and get SPiCy. at the end, KS promises to be with him forever. 

 

 **28 Chanbaek** ; So remember that address and date from chanyeol? Welp, Baek goes to the address and the door opens to reveal chanyeol. Chanyeol drags him in and they basically fuck in the mansion that CY now lives in. CY also switched schools. When Baek wakes up, he feels out of place and leaves, he never had to do that before with chanyeol, usually he would cuddle until it was morning. 

 

**29 Xiuchen and** **HunHan** ; Xiu notices how Baek is acting a bit off, so he gathers his friend group to go to a nice college party. They try to get Baek’s mind off the stress and sadness. Xiu goes with chen and luhan brings Sehun, who he’s been thinking of confessing to for a while, but a tragic thing happens. Many people are drunk and shit, and someone decides to burn the house down or something. Many people get caught up in the fire, one of those being Luhan. Something fell on him as he tried to escape, Sehun went back in for him, burning his hands but getting him out nevertheless. But it’s too late, his lungs collapsed and he can’t breathe very well. Right there, with his last breaths, Luhan tells Sehun that he loves him. 

 

**30 Kaisoo** **;** everything goes downhill from here, KS collapses in the middle of the school hallways as they’re walking to class or something. They rush to the hospital. At the very end Kai is seeing the worried faces of doctors some walking out saying “he’s so young too”

 

**31 ChanBaek;** It happens again and again. Until one day, CY’s wife comes in and asks “who’s this? A new servant. CY goes over and kisses her on the head and talks to her” Baek feels sick. She leaves soon after and so does CY, they had a meeting to go to. Baek realizes that he’s basically Chanyeol’s dirty little secret. He leaves. As he’s going home late at night, he almost gets into trouble until someone comes over to help him. The boy helps him because he’s a nice dude. 

 

**32 Kaisoo** ; KS pov- he is told that he is gonna die, basically. When Kai comes in to see him, he doesn’t have the guts to tell him that, so he lies. He fakes it until he makes it. the day comes where kyungsoo finally finds the guts to tell Kai. He takes Kai to a beautiful place and tells him the news. Kai is shocked and doesn’t want to believe it, but nods and accepts the news. So kai promises to not take the rest of their time together (like two or three months). But their time is cut short. Kyungsoo is rushed to the hospital and is dying. Kai is with him for the whole time up until his last breath. 

(this will be one whole chapter) 

 

**33 Xiuchen** : Xiu is really taking a hit on Kyungsoo’s death, he was his best friend and one of the last best friends that he has. There’s only baekhyun left from that group. He is super sad, but chen is there is comfort him and maybe even cheer him up.

 

**34 ALL Couples** ; EVERYONE IS HEALING FROM KS DEATH (Xiuchen, -sehun mainly comforts kai bc his love died as well) bUt CY DOESN’t Know until someone tells him by text. His whole world comes crashing down from here on. His childhood friend is dead. So he decides there’s only one last thing that could possibly cheer him up. He goes to find Baek He finds him alright,,, with another boy. Hint Hint, that boy happens to be that boy that helped baek when he was returning home from chanyeol’s home. Chanyeol leaves without speaking or confronting baek. They never know the truth of each other. Baek wanted chanyeol, chanyeol wanted Baek. But I guess it wasn’t meant to be. 

 

**35 Next and Final Chapter for Kaisoo** ; Kai doesn’t fall in love again. His one and only love is dead. He visits his grave every day. Giving the boy his favorite flowers. Until he can’t take it anymore. He kills himself. ‘Is there a heaven? Does he even deserve to go there? He knows kyungsoo does. And they meet again at last. In their own heaven. And Luhan is there.’ 

 

**36 ALL Couples** ; Graduation with Kai, sehun, Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen. It’s not that many months since KS died. Kai is still wounded. But Baekhyun has already moved on from Chanyeol, in fact, hes kinda into Sehun. He’s gotten better, nicer since he dated Luhan. Though they’re not in a dating relationship, they’re close friends. As for Xiuchen, their relationship is going strong.

 

**37 Xiuchen** ; TIME SKIP: Xiuchen own an apartment together, they’re rushing to get to work. Xiu is on the phone with someone and he suddenly drops his phone. Chen looks over at him and there’s tears in his eyes. Chen goes over and sees what’s wrong. They got a call: Kai is dead. Suicide. They skip work and heal for a bit, until Chen pulls them outside for a hike or something (some pretty venue). Xiu is confused, but enlightened by the beauty. It’s nice to be distracted from the sadness. That night, Chen proposes to Xiu and he says yes. “Though today didn’t go as planned, I still won’t give up this beautiful chance to ask you this question”

 

**38 Xiuchen;** They get married. But even the happiness of a marriage can’t cover up the hurt they have from losing their friends. Idk if this is the real ending, but i’ll come up with something eventually. This could possibly be the ending of the whole story, ending with the wedding and them just feeling/imagining the souls of their friends beside them. Luhan is Xiu’s best man, Kyungsoo sings for their first dance, Kai would have been on the dance floor the whole night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story while it lasted. I'm also sorry to the people I told that I would continue the story... and now I'm not. I hope you can forgive me. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
